Pine 4 Pine Letter 2021

[malachiical]

Hello, Pine 4 Pine creator! Thank you for writing for me! I'm Mal or Mali (malachiical @ AO3 as well); I'll try to keep each individual section of this letter brief, and you should be able to skip to wherever you like with anchor links and/or just expand the parts relevant to you via cut. I hope our pining ids align and that you have a blast writing, because I'm definitely looking forward to whatever you come up with!

General DNWs
General Likes
Porn Likes
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002) - Trap Jaw/Tri-Klops
Marvel 616 - Adrian Toomes/Nathan Lubensky
The Spectacular Spider-Man (Cartoon) - Adrian Toomes/Otto Octavius
The Spectacular Spider-Man (Cartoon) - Phineas Mason/Quentin Beck
Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Year One - Otto Octavius/Peter Parker
Vampire Cleanup Department (2017) - Yip Chi Chau/Yeung Chung

General DNWs

• the pining never being resolved!
• incest
• noncon/dubcon
• underage
• gore, permanent injury, character death (unless otherwise stated)
• infidelity
• halves of the pair feeling like they really just don't like or care about each other at all (even with more complicated stuff I am a BIG SOPPY ROMANTIC)
• the pairing having sexualities that mean they aren't attracted to one another
• being ashamed of or hating one's body (even for trans stuff, if you write it; just no focus on dysphoria please)
• unhappy endings
• unrequested AUs (canon divergence is fine)
• unrequested identity headcanons (mentions for OCs are fine)
• unrequested noncanon ships (background canon ships that don't break up the requested pairing are fine; mentions of OCs being in relationships with one another is fine)
• unrequested poly (mentions of OCs being in poly relationships with one another is fine)
• unnecessary use of safewords or stoplight symbols
• feederism, weight gain, inflation, pregnancy (mentions of OCs being pregnant are fine)
• scat, watersports, vomit (mentions of someone throwing up not in a kink context are fine), vore, bestiality, choking/breathplay, somnophilia, mommy- or daddykink, 24/7 D/S

General Likes

• culmination of pining: getting together, kissing, UST being resolved! I am into all ratings for these fics legit
• fluff, snapshot moments of what's going on in their lives
• romantic tension, UST that eventually becomes resolved
• flirting, confident or awkward or just fuckin disastrous
• extreme loyalty
• redemption arcs, gray morality, general complexity, lighter takes on villains & villain redemption
• hurt/comfort
• happy or at least hopeful/somewhat upbeat endings
• first times and milestones (sexual or non, doesn’t even have to be overly romantic, stuff like taking a photo for the first time together or and the like is also good!)
• I really do love age gaps tbh and find older characters hot & also love when the other characters do... in SSM I can easily imagine Otto being in his 30s or early 40s while Adrian is in his 60s, and Phineas Mason being in his 50s while Beck is in his 30s, and in Vampire Cleanup Department Chau is probably meant to be in his 40s with Chung in his 70s; it's not an age gap but with Adrian Toomes/Nathan Lubensky I am INTO those two old men finding each other hot!
• descriptions of making out tbh
• trans headcanons where it’s not A Thing in the fic, no coming out or explanations necessary, or it's just accepted and not super dwelled on unless the prompt is about self-exploration. no Having To Deal With Bigotry or issuefic or anything, just character(s) happen(s) to be trans (both same gender/pronouns as in canon and different gender/pronouns are fine)
• canon divergent AUs, change one thing about a canon and maybe other things happen differently
• art treats always welcome!

Porn Likes

• first times and milestones
• frot, scissoring, intercrural, grinding against ass, basically all that stuff
• handjobs, fingering, oral
• romantic smut, lots of touching, focus on touching/wanting to touch and sensations and body parts, loving descriptions of partner's body (description of both stereotypically attractive and not stereotypically attractive features welcome so long as they're INTO it!), kissing during sex, hand-holding during sex, eye contact during sex, all that stuff!
• clothed sex, partially clothed sex, and clothing kink!
• inexperience, awkward, clumsy but eager and enjoyable sex
• XENO. xeno xeno xeno I am so into xeno, play around with alien genitalia and I am here for it, tentacles, cloacas, characters having both sets of genitalia, ovipositors, genitals resembling flowers or wet pinecone dick, Mouths Down There, legit whatever you can think of just g o f o r i t
• BDSM tones, mild or more formal
• praise kink and instructions/requests/begging flavors of dirty talk
• manhandling, hair pulling, love bites and scratches, rough but not outright painful (or only pleasantly painful) sex
• orgasm delay (though not total denial), edging
• alternately, multiple orgasms, "forced" orgasms that are still enjoyable
• e n t h u s i a s m and detailed descriptions of sex, just go for it
• in general, prefer the terms: penis, cock, dick, length; nipples, ass, and testicles/balls can just be called those things; vagina, vulva, cunt, or pussy if that comes up; come or cum are both fine spellings
• piv in trans smut is fine; oral and pia sex super welcome, alternatives are also loved; prefer for vagina to be called vagina, cunt, or pussy, or to be referred to vaguely, not "hole"; prefer for ass NOT to be called a vagina/cunt/pussy, but referred to vaguely & implied to be one is fine, or just called ass; fine with clit being called clit or penis/cock/dick, fine with penis being called penis/cock/dick or hen or clit

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002)
Trap Jaw/Tri-Klops
(Trap Jaw pining or both pining; feelings eventually requited)

[Where you can find the series: Here!
Most Pertinent Episodes:
Establishing episodes if you want 'em - S1E1-3 (The Beginning) (establishes the series and also kinda shows Keldor becoming Skeletor, etc., plus some establishing fight scenes and so on)
For the two together - S1E23 (Sweet Smell Of Victory) (a small scene but a cute one); S2E32 (The Price Of Deceit) (just a flashback scene that shows them as two of Keldor's first followers); S2E33 (Of Machines And Men) (again just a couple moments but they're good)
For Trap Jaw - S1E18 (Trust))
For Tri-Klops - S1E17 (The Roboto Gambit) (its real title is Roboto's Gambit but w/e); S1E25 (The Council Of Evil Part 001) (idk why Trap Jaw isn't there but has a couple nice Tri-Klops moments)]

I really like Tri-Klops, I won't lie. I love how in the one episode where Skeletor's enough of a jackass to him that he considers betraying him and taking over without him, it takes him a super long time to be like "wait a minute I don't need Skeletor!" despite him being kind of a genius. I love the potential that he joined up with Keldor because he honestly believed in what he was trying to do, and things just got worse after Keldor became Skeletor and he's gotten more frustrated and cynical. I love that he made his own visor to allow himself to see at all and added three increased sight options and lasers, and I love how he saved Trap Jaw's life by making his prosthetics. I love how well he fights with the rest of the team and how he makes practically alive little robots and incorporated bullshit magitech into his inventions!

Speaking of Trap Jaw... I also love Trap Jaw. He's tough, and he can be pretty sharp despite being more brawn than brains, and he's one of Skeletor's most loyal. And when I say I love that Tri-Klops made Trap Jaw's prosthetics and saved his life, wow do I love that. I could imagine those two being close beforehand or only getting really close after, maybe due to Trap Jaw needing to get regular check-ups and learn how to do his own maintenance for a while. The idea that maybe Trap Jaw is more welcome in Tri-Klops's lab than most other people due to that experience makes me happy. The idea of Tri-Klops really caring about him makes me happy, as does the idea of Trap Jaw feeling grateful, paying attention to the things Tri-Klops likes and making an effort to do/get them for him, maybe even considering that he's living in overtime now and if he needed to sacrifice himself to save Tri-Klops, well, Tri-Klops saved him years ago, he got extra time. (I also love how dorky they both are, how Tri-Klops laughs as Trap Jaw's dumb joke in the Stinkor ep, how even when Tri-Klops snaps at him in the Of Machines and Men episode Trap Jaw reaches out to try to help him!)

Requested Tags

• B is oblivious to A's pining and A wants to keep it that way
• They Couldn't Possibly Be Ignorant Of How I Feel So I Assume They Must Not Be Interested

Whether it's Trap Jaw pining or both pining, I feel like for the first tag Trap Jaw would be A. Why might he want to keep it that way? Fear of ruining their existing relationship is another tag, I could see him not wanting to mess up their friendship or throw off how well they fight together or just in general make it awkward around Snake Mountain (or if Tri-Klops still does regular checkups and/or maintenance on his prosthetics)... Is he so sure that Tri-Klops doesn't and won't ever return the feeling? Why? The second tag is the exact opposite, assuming that the other has to know, and I could see either Trap Jaw making the assumption or both of them just kind of assuming they've been way too obvious and the other can't be oblivious (well guess what). If it's mutual pining, is the fact that they're both pining why they can't quite pick up on it? If it's just Trap Jaw pining, why does Tri-Klops not know if Trap Jaw thinks he's been so obvious? For this prompt I kind of like the idea that they just feel like they haven't been able to hide it well at all rather than having been actively trying to hint at it.

• Caretaking And Kind Gestures For Pining Character Who Isn't Used To Them

Again, whether it's just Trap Jaw or both of them pining, I could easily see Trap Jaw being the pining character in this prompt! "Caretaking" could even mean literal actually helping him out, either soon after whatever happened to injure him so badly or if even years later Tri-Klops still helps him out with maintenance or check-ups to his prosthetics, upgrades, etc. That said, I could also really enjoy Trap Jaw doing the caretaking and kind gestures thing to a confused and pining Tri-Klops, maybe because he's pining, or both of them doing this for one another!

• Character A pines for close friend who is unaware
• Character A tries to convince themself that a platonic relationship is enough
• Character silently pines for someone due to fear of ruining their existing relationship

These are just the tags that assume these two are good friends, though the last one could easily be concern about throwing off how well they fight together or just in general making it awkward around Snake Mountain (or if Tri-Klops still does regular checkups and/or maintenance on his prosthetics). They do seem to get along and click pretty well so I can imagine neither of them wanting to screw that up, though of course again I default to thinking of Trap Jaw as Character A.

• Character B figures out that Character A has been pining for them for years
• Long-term pining is finally resolved

Okay, in this case, that first tag I would definitely want Trap Jaw to be Character A even with mutual pining! Maybe Tri-Klops has just recently started? Also "for years," "long-term," tbh I immediately imagined it stretching back to at least when Trap Jaw got his prosthetics. Maybe even before. With the latter tag, both of them could have been long-term pining tbh, in that case I don't even mind if Tri-Klops has maybe even been pining for longer, maybe even a while before whatever happened to Kronis.

• Character will follow the object of their pining into danger or towards certain death
• Pining Character Throws Themselves Between Crush and Lethal Danger

In this set of tags I'd prefer for the pining character to be Trap Jaw even if you're going with mutual pining! To repeat myself from above, "the idea of Trap Jaw feeling grateful [makes me happy]... maybe even considering that he's living in overtime now and if he needed to sacrifice himself to save Tri-Klops, well, Tri-Klops saved him years ago, he got extra time." I don't mind if Trap Jaw is equally loyal to Skeletor, or even more loyal, but I admit the idea of Trap Jaw actually silently being more loyal to Tri-Klops than literally anyone else and Tri-Klops not even realizing it at first is incredibly iddy to me.

• Cooking as an expression of affection for the object of pining
• Pining Character A has paid attention and knows B incredibly well
• Pining Character Awkwardly Trying To Show Affection Through Small Gestures
• Trying to express their feelings through gift-giving

Okay, these tags are just... the small gestures tags and I love them. They can be doing these things for one another, or it can be Trap Jaw as the focal pining character whether it's mutual or not! To address the second tag first, it is incredibly iddy to me to have a character just know a lot of little things about the object of their affection because they pay attention and have picked up a lot of casual mentions and habits! For cooking, does Tri-Klops have obviously favorite foods or ingredients and has Trap Jaw picked up on that? For small gestures and gift-giving, does Trap Jaw do little things he knows Tri-Klops would appreciate (helping clean up, ushering people away from his lab, trading watch shifts, giving a lil massage?), or pick up things he knows Tri-Klops likes/needs while he's out or things that make him think of him?

• Life Threatening Situation Prompts Confession of Feelings
• pining character A finally makes a move after B almost died

Given my above idea that Trap Jaw might just be willing to die for Tri-Klops if it comes down to it, I can imagine a situation where both of their lives are threatened or where Tri-Klops is the one who almost died being what it takes to rattle Trap Jaw enough to finally admit/make a move! That said, if it's mutual pining, I am also into Tri-Klops being Character A/the one to confess. You could even combine these prompts and the "willing to danger" ones in a lot of different ways!

• Pining while having wounds tended
• Pining while tending someone's wounds

A lighter take on the "they're in dangerous situations" prompts, this one is more after the fact! I don't mind major wounds so long as there's no gore; for this canon I don't even mind permanent inury even past what's already there in canon because they definitely seem used to scars and getting prosthetics and things already. (Hell, this could take place back when Kronis first became Trap Jaw!) But I am also totally here for one or both of them patching up the other's smaller wounds, when it's not a major worry at all, just something they're super used to doing.

• Pining while sparring

They fight on each others' side, they work pretty damn well together, I'd love to see them spar with one another! I find that kind of thing can be incredibly hot; I don't have as much to say about this prompt but I love it. These two are hot, have Trap Jaw or both of them appreciating how hot the other is while they (maybe somewhat dangerously) physically exert together. Wink.

• Pining while stranded in the wilderness

I am also very down for incorporation of the "huddling to keep warm" tag/trope for this one, but you certainly don't have to! Hell, the wilderness could be the Sands of Fire/Dunes of Doom or one of the beaches or islands or the dangerous Evergreen Forest or even trying to navigate the Corridors of Lithos. But it could also be the Ice Mountains. Whatever the case, why are they stranded? Did they get sent out to do something or find something and get lost? Did Skeletor abandon them out there after a plan went wrong and he left in a fit of pique? Did some enemy or just a random weird rift/magic thing dump them somewhere? Are they stranded as in trapped, or lost, or just stuck traveling for a long while? Do they have to work together to survive and/or are they just in fairly close quarters and spending time together alone?

Canon-Specific DNWs

• presenting Tri-Klops or Trap Jaw as pure evil/irredeemable
  

Canon-Specific Likes

• noncanon background pairings I actually enjoy if they happen to come up: Whiplash/Mer-Man, Beast Man/Mer-Man, Whiplash/Beast Man/Mer-Man, Sy-Klone/Roboto, Stratos/Buzz Off, Mekaneck/Buzz Off, Stratos/Buzz Off/Mekaneck, Mekaneck/Ram Man
• NAMES. REAL NAMES. PET NAMES. do they just call one another Trap Jaw and Tri-Klops? does Trap Jaw ever call Tri-Klops anything like Tri/Try or Trike? do Trydor and Kronis ever still call one another by those names? (Kro/Krow is also acceptable!) do either of them ever use any terms of endearment like sweetheart or hon or doll or hot stuff or like anything, is it teasing or affectionate? I am so into literally all of this so go nuts!!
• if you're interested, I like trans headcanons for these characters! for Trap Jaw I kinda like nonbinary but trans man or even trans woman are good; for Tri-Klops, trans woman is kind of appealing but nonbinary or trans man are also good! as for any other characters that show up, I'd prefer if the female characters were kept female, whether cis or trans, but feel free to make any of the male characters trans men, trans women, or nonbinary! and of course trans headcanons aren't at all obligatory!

Marvel 616
Adrian Toomes/Nathan Lubensky
(Adrian pining; feelings eventually requited)

[Most Pertinent Issues:
Lead-up to meeting - The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) Issue #2 (first Vulture issue), Untold Tales of Spider-Man Issue #20 (interesting redemption-ish moment for Vulture), The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) Issues #240 and 241 (Vulture's backstory in more depth), The Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) Issues #44 and 45 (Vulture losing his nephew and how he ended up in the hospital)
Their relationship - The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) Issue #224, Web of Spider-Man (1985) Issue #3 (fairly small moment but good)
Nathan dying - The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) Issues #334 and 335 (only Nathan appearing) and 336 (Nathan's death)
Vulture torn up after Nathan's death - The Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) Issues #186 and 187 and 188
If you want to do clone stuff - The Clone Conspiracy #4, The Amazing Spider-Man (2015) Issue #23, The Clone Conspiracy #5]

I'll keep this short; if you want to see way more rambling thoughts from me on these two, you can check out the Marvel (Comics) section of this Chocolate Box letter of mine.

Mostly, though, Adrian Toomes and Nathan Lubensky are entirely too iddy for me. Vulture is a fucked up criminal who doesn't mind murdering people to get what he wants, and when he's at his lowest, a totally ordinary, good man reaches out to him in friendship and in kindness and he just... falls completely in love, I can't interpret it any other way. Nathan gives Adrian a new lease on life, and when Spider-Man tracks Vulture down (because of course Adrian's also been crime spreeing it up) Vulture reaches for someone to hostage and: "Eh? N-Nathan? I didn't know that I'd grabbed you! I just reached for the closest warm body. You... gave me my life back. How can I hurt you?" At some point "off-screen" Vulture reaches out to Nathan and asks him to be his partner in crime!

And then, canonically, it ends tragically. Nathan develops heart problems that get much worse, and when he bets on a man's life to try to leave May some money when he dies, he winds up getting grabbed by the Vulture again (who doesn't realize who he is) and having a heart attack. And then Vulture spends multiple issues, while dying himself, just desperate to earn May's forgiveness because being responsible for Nathan dying is tearing him up: "Nathan was my friend! I cared about him! I really cared! Your aunt has to know that I never... never... would've laid a hand on him that day if I'd realized who he was!" (With Peter's thought after that being "I know what it's like to feel responsible for the death of someone you love...")

Adrian is so clearly a ruthless murderer who doesn't really know how to approach this reasonably at all, but that makes it even more interesting to me that he's so legitimately desperately attached to Nathan and torn up over his death. I really love that this supervillain who is legitimately Kinda Fucked Up also sincerely cares about and is dedicated to just... this normal, decent man who believed in him and showed him kindness one (1) time when he desperately needed it. (A normal decent man who is, admittedly, willing to bet on the murder of a rich jackass when desperate, which also makes the dynamic of the two more interesting to me.)

(As for Nathan's canon fate... Feel free to have him have survived somehow; maybe that entire situation never happened at all, or he just didn't have heart problems and survived the fall. Or have his clone with all his memories have survived after The Clone Conspiracy. Or have Adrian have done something in order to resurrect him, even! No zombie stuff, and I'd prefer if terminal illness stuff was just... handwaved/not touched on/assumed not to be a thing/acknowledged as cured, basically just neither of them dead or dying.)

Requested Tags

• Character A has never been in love before and so doesn't immediately recognize the feeling
• Pining for the first time and it’s a revelation

Adrian definitely seems to have a hard time connecting with people, in that way where at this point in his life he just does not give a shit about most other people and doesn't care to get close to them/get to know them well enough to start giving a shit. There have been some exceptions to this rule, but Nathan is the biggest one. I feel like if you really leaned into that and played with how unprecidented this type and level of feeling is for Adrian it could be really, really good, whether it takes him a while to realize what he's feeling because it's just so alien to him or if he figures it out quick and is just amazed by it.

• Character A pines for Character B while borrowing/wearing B's clothes
• Character A pines for Character B who is borrowing/wearing A's clothes

I JUST LOVE CLOTHES SHARING, OKAY? Whether Adrian is borrowing some of Nathan's clothes or if Nathan is borrowing some of his, I just love this trope a whole lot. Why are clothes being shared? Is it a totally normal reason, like one's clothes being dirty and waiting for them to finish going through the washer? Or is this possibly a scenario where one or the other is in danger? Is Adrian trying to help out Nathan, possibly trying to help disguise him? (Feel free to either have Nathan know he's the Vulture or AU that he never found out up to this point and Adrian is tempted to just fuckin murder whoever is threatening Nathan but is deciding to help out this way instead, at least for now... Or something like that!) Or is Nathan aware that Adrian is the Vulture but trying to help him out anyway, either helping him get out of his costume and hide from some of his enemies (maybe even the police!) in civilian clothes, or giving him a change of clothes due to his costume being fucked up in a fight. Hell, you could go with Nathan having died and come back to life somehow, or even the canonical coming back as a clone, and Adrian giving him a change of clothes... There's probably a lot more you could play with here and I'd love it all!

• Character A tries to convince themself that a platonic relationship is enough
• pining because character(s) worries about ruining their friendship

Nathan's friendship canonically means a shocking amount to Adrian, honestly, and I could see that being used for this! If Adrian is unwilling to rock the boat and risk losing Nathan as a friend that could make a whole lot of sense. That could work for either tag, but for the first you could also potentially play with a scenario after Nathan almost died, or did die and come back, or did die and come back as a clone, or whatever, if Adrian isn't even sure if they're friends anymore but by some miracle (at least from his POV) Nathan doesn't seem to hate him and he doesn't want to risk totally fucking up what decent relationship they do have left. (I want it to work out in the end, of course, or at least for them both being willing to try!)

• A dies before B can confess their feelings; B time travels back to fix everything

Okay, this is another possibility for Nathan's fate I guess! You could also have Nathan die in a different way from canon, but given Vulture's response to and guilt over Nathan's death I could absolutely see him doing this instead of his desperate appeals to Aunt May in canon. However he manages to time travel, you could have him get the help from another villain (the Tinkerer or Doctor Octopus seem possible, but someone else might work) or steal something/use something of someone's, that isn't as important to me as Adrian's desperate attempts to save Nathan's life (and his eventual success), so don't worry too much about it! Or if you do have an idea you think is fun you could do full on plot stuff, I do not mind either way. Just so long as it's intensely emotional and works out in the end!

• Hurt pining character turns up on pined-for character's doorstep (didn't know where else to go)
• Pining while having wounds tended

Okay, there are probably other ways you can take this and I'm not married to this exact idea, but my first thought was Adrian showing up on Nathan's doorstep in full Vulture garb because he needs help and doesn't trust anyone the way he does Nathan, and Nathan helping him out despite not approving of the Vulture thing because... well, Ade's still his friend. Whether this is Aunt May's doorstep, or if Nathan is living in his own place, or if it's Nathan's door at the nursing home again, it's all good! Heck, you could even have Nathan have died and come back to life (as a clone or not) some time later and be living in his own place because of that. In any case, just Vulture being hurt and going to Nathan for help and actually getting that help no matter the circumstances because Nathan does care is so good, I love it.

• Love Confession: One Character Thought The Other Was Dead
• pining character A finally makes a move after B almost died

Okay, I'll admit it, these tags are "there's something kind of wrong with Vulture" tags, haha. It's not just him having feelings, it's him apparently (given these tags) nearly accidentally killing Nathan (or in the case of the first tag maybe Nathan actually did die for a while before coming back, clone or not, "thought" can mean he actually did or not!) and being completely horrified and shaken up by it and... thinking it's a good idea to confess his love/make a move after that. Thinking that's a reasonable prompt to go for it! I mean, I do want Nathan to return his feelings and at least want to try to make it work in the end, but let's be real, it is still a terrible idea.

• A pines for B while feeling responsible for B's death
• A pines for B while thinking B hates them
• A thinks B won't want them because of their past behavior

Now, obviously given my DNWs and the requited tag, I do want Nathan to be alive by the end and for it to work out but. Whether Vulture actually did accidentally kill Nathan (at least the first tag), if he nearly did, or if he just assumes that being a supervillain who's definitely killed people before would be a definite dealbreaker for Nathan, I really love these tags just being like... Adrian pining because he's like "well, I'm not a good person and I've done terrible things and will probably continue to do so" with maybe the added element of killing or almost killing Nathan but... Nathan's just cares about him too much for it to be a dealbreaker even when it should be. (Hell, I also really do prefer it to be "thinking B hates them" and not Nathan actually hating him. It might be complicated but I prefer Nathan not actually being able to hate him, he loves him too much for that.)

• A pines for B while protecting them from outside threats
• Pining Character Throws Themselves Between Crush and Lethal Danger
• Pining Character tries to change for object of pining

These are Vulture being... well, better, if not a decent person, maybe even trying to be or maybe just so dedicated to This One Man. For the first two tags, who wants to threaten Nathan? Is it because he's standing up for someone and then Vulture (or even just Adrian) has to protect him, or is he in trouble due to gambling, or is it just a coincidence/accident like falling debris, stray weaponry, a wild animal, etc.? (I do want both to survive, obviously!) Finally, for that last tag, I really love the idea of Nathan basically being Adrian's entire moral compass, lol. Does Adrian try to change because he knows Nathan wouldn't like him killing or threatening people, even without Nathan telling/asking him to? Or does Nathan tell Adrian to change his ways? (And maybe it's even a little charged in a D/s way they're both getting off on/enjoying way more than they think they should but aren't actually outright acknowledging, "just playing in a 'this is a sexual encounter but nothing's actually happening and we're not talking about it' space" as I said in another letter? I'm down for these two old men being kinky and undernegotiating some D/s with Vulture as a shockingly eager loyal sub, I won't lie. You don't have to go that route at all but it is hot to me!)

• Pining Character Awkwardly Trying To Show Affection Through Small Gestures

It's really the "awkwardly" and "small gestures" parts that are doing it for me with this tag, tbh. I don't have that much to say about it, I just really like Adrian not really being used to showing affection and not being great at it but trying in small ways. Paying attention to the things Nathan likes and appreciates, trying to give little physical gestures of affection, etc. Being blatantly not used to doing it but giving it his best shot. Play with this idea and I would love it.

• A pining for B while wanting them to be happy with someone else

I chose this one instead of A pining for B because of B being with someone else because I prefer this dynamic of... it's not that Nathan is with May, or even that he's happy with May, it's that he's happy with May and the idea that Adrian thinks he either would not be as happy with him, could not have the life he wants with him, or both. I really like the context that Adrian is a supervillain who regularly does bad things and also asked Nathan to be his partner in crime and got shot down. (Hell, he might feel like asking Nathan that was a clear expression of interest and Nathan turning him down was him saying he didn't feel that way about him! Which is quite a conclusion to leap too, damn Adrian.) "If he wants to live out the rest of his life in a little house with May Parker, I wish them every happiness in the world" is just a very sweet and bittersweet sentiment. Though of course I do want the ship to work out by the end, either with May being okay with them also being a thing (obviously in an AU where Vulture didn't kill or almost kill Nathan) or Nathan and May breaking up for whatever reasons (I do love May so I'd rather it be amiable).

• Realizing your feelings are mutual and it's kind of terrifying

I am just always here for this tag, and as I put it in another letter, "the sheer amount of emotion and the strangeness of the whole 'deadly supervillain and good civilian' might leave them both a bit afraid of the truth of what they're feeling!" Especially if Adrian is a)really not used to feeling anything close to this way about anyone and b)absolutely astonished that Nathan could love/want him in return despite everything (whatever everything is, whether it's just "I'm a supervillain" all the way to "I killed him"). I don't have as much to say about this one but I want to roll around in a fic that really leans into the sheer emotion of it!

Canon-Specific DNWs

• Weird Hot Young Vulture unless otherwise mentioned (mostly, if Nathan is being resurrected/cloned as a younger man, this is fine)
• most of Vulture's cancer storyline (even if you're using the "Funeral Arrangements" mini-arc, feel free to just... handwave that whole thing or end with him in complete remission or cured)
• permanent character death (please both alive and not about to die soon by the end of the story)
• mentions of Vulture's daughter, son, daughter-in-law, and grandson (they're just from parts of canon I'm only nominally familiar with)
• Vulture being presented as Crazy or totally irredeemably evil
• infidelity (just reiterating this here to specify that you can just... handwave stuff with May, have them not together anymore by the point that anything happens between these two, AU so they never were together, or if pre-Nathan-dying or if that whole situation never happens have her be okay with his and Adrian's relationship; just no killing her off or having him cheat)

Canon-Specific Likes

• I LOVE NICKNAMES AND PET NAMES! Adrian calling Nathan "Nate"! Nathan calling Adrian "Ade"! I am also there for what it might mean if Nathan calls Adrian "Vulture"; a distance thing, a disapproval thing, an acceptance thing, an intimate thing? also feel free to let them be sappy if you like, especially Nathan who I can see dropping endearments potentially!
• if you're interested, I like trans headcanons for these characters, Adrian especially but Nathan is good too; I can especially see Nathan being a trans man but anything's good, and anything works for Adrian! and of course trans headcanons aren't obligatory!

The Spectacular Spider-Man (Cartoon)
Adrian Toomes/Otto Octavius
(Adrian pining or both pining; feelings eventually requited)

[Where you can find the series: Here!
Most Pertinent Episodes:
For the two together - S1E1 (Survival of the Fittest) (though this is majorly a Vulture episode); S1E11 (Group Therapy); S2E3 (Reinforcement); S2E4 (Shear Strength); S2E8 (Accomplices) (for them showing up at the auction together, also interesting for Ock's character in some ways); S2E10 (Gangland)
For Otto - S1E5 (Competition); S1E6 (The Invisible Hand); S1E7 (Catalyst) (only in a small scene); S1E8 (Reaction) (Doctor Octopus origin episode, and check the photo on Otto's wall!); S2E1 (Blueprints) (scene at end as Master Planner); S2E2 (Destructive Testing) (scene at beginning and end as Master Planner)
...Adrian literally does not have episodes where his relationship with Otto isn't immensely interesting to me! Well then.]

I am just WAY TOO INVESTED in these ridiculous theatrical supervillains being pre-supervillain friends who are now loyal and in love while trying to take over the world/take murderous revenge!

While the first episode introduces both characters with Adrian furious at Otto, it makes sense, since they seem to have been close before (the photo on Otto's wall in the Doctor Octopus origin episode!) and Adrian was probably feeling hurt/betrayed. The rest of their dynamic is so far from what one might expect from that first impression that it's insane! Reunited as cellmates, Vulture helping Doc Ock with a big jailbreak, not just working together in the Sinister Six but Vulture ceding his desire to take vengeance on Osborn to follow Ock's plan to take out Spider-Man first... And they just never work apart again? Adrian is one of only three people to find out the Master Planner's true identity, part of his inner circle! When Ock tests out the technology meant to allow him to hack into every single electrical device in the city, he does so by trying to kill Norman Osborn, seemingly for Adrian's sake, and despite revenge being Vulture's driving motivation Adrian is totally fine about it not working. When Otto tries to credit him and Phineas Mason and for doing brilliant work assembling the technology, Adrian immediately demurs the compliment and turns it back around on him: "The brainwork was all yours, Otto." For a grouchy old man, he smiles a lot around Otto, too!

And even after the Master Planner's master plan is defeated and literally every other member of the Sinister Six seems to go their separate ways and do their own things, Vulture just stays with Doctor Octopus, seemingly acting as bodyguard for the auction, for the Valentine's Day summit (where they also dress up fancy and hot)... There are also just these cute little touches I love, like how in the first Sinister Six fight when Spider-Man jumps on the Vulture's back you can see the back of Doctor Octopus's head tracking them, and a few moments later Otto is the one to pull Spider-Man off Adrian's back. And when Doctor Octopus puts a tentacle on everyone's shoulders in the Sinister Six ep to ease them back down into their chairs, it looks like his tentacle is on Adrian's back instead of his shoulder. And when Hammerhead shoots at Adrian at the summit and knocks him unconscious, Otto's cry of "TREACHERY!" is fuckin pissed and he just has no patience for Tombstone in that fight after. I love how Ock seems to honestly care about his team and make an effort to make them happy, and how Vulture is perfectly willing to put his own goals on the backburner in a way that feels very "I am helping this man take over the world because he wants to and he deserves to get whatever he wants, fuck you." I love seeing these supervillains have huge soft spots, in general and especially for each other!

TL;DR they married, ty for reading my villain shipping Ted Talk.

Requested Tags

• Character A has never been in love before and so doesn't immediately recognize the feeling
• Character A suddenly realizes that they've been pining for B and didn't know it
• Pining for the first time and it’s a revelation

Okay, honestly, these tags work for Adrian pining or both pining, with either Adrian being Character A or it being true of both of them tbh? For the first and last, I feel like their reasons for not pining/being in love before this point might be very different; Adrian feels like up until the Sinister Six he was somewhat standoffish with most people other than Otto, and of course Otto was meek and uncertain around people, probably to the point of not getting close to many. So this could be very new to Adrian or very new to both of them! As for that second tag, I could potentially see Adrian or even both of them realizing, slowly or all at once, that they actually love the other and had up to that point not realized because they'd been taking their comfort and pleasure being around one another a little bit for granted. It just felt totally natural so they didn't even immediately think anything of it. I'm a sucker for both of these options!

• Character A pines for B while swearing loyalty/fealty to B

Okay, I am definitely imagining Adrian as Character A here even if it's mutual pining! Vulture being Doctor Octopus's right hand man and apparent birdyguard bodyguard and just always working with him after that first escape from Ryker's is just very hot to me and BEGS for loyalty kink. The "while" in that prompt could also do some heavy lifting, because I don't mind if part of why Vulture is swearing loyalty to Doctor Octopus is because he's in love or if he'd be swearing loyalty even if he wasn't! Both are very iddy to me. That said, as I said above, "[Vulture] feels very 'I am helping this man take over the world because he wants to and he deserves to get whatever he wants, fuck you.'" And I love that. (Hell, you could even take this tag 100% literally and have the pining be while Adrian is swearing loyalty, like, actively; maybe him going so far as to do so surprises Otto and that's what makes him at least start to realize how Adrian feels? You could do a lot with this, though!)

• Character A Pines For Character B Not Realizing It's Requited

Okay this is just a general tag for Mutual Feelings and I am so into it! I still feel like Adrian would be Character A in this tag but it could work for either. This is the most basic of the tags I chose and I don't have specific thoughts about it; it could be combined with any of the other tags or just used on its own, this is me giving you carte blanche to do whatever you like with this idea! I WOULD LOVE WHATEVER.

• Character A pines for close friend who is unaware
• pining after years of friendship
• Character B figures out that Character A has been pining for them for years

The pining for a close friend and/or for many years tags! Character A feels like it should be Adrian but honestly it could just as easily be both of them and I would be good with it. For the first tag, is it mutual pining with both unaware? Why are both unaware? Is it in part because they're both caught up in their own feelings, or is it because back before they became supervillains they both tried to hide it (and Otto was just nervous around people in any case! seemingly less so about Adrian, even, if the photo on his wall is any indication) and their current demeanors are still fairly new? If it's Adrian pining and Otto who's unaware, could meek Otto just never have imagined it and Doctor Octopus still hasn't been able to quite figure it out? (I do have a soft spot for geniuses with a blind spot...) The second tag could mean one or both of them was pining for years or it could mean that so many years of friendship have recently come to a (pining) head... And finally for the last, I could see Character B being Otto, of course, and this is very combinable with either/both of the other tags, but I am also super open to it being Adrian who's also been pining and is astonished to figure out that Otto has been for ages!

• Character will follow the object of their pining into danger or towards certain death
• A pines for B while protecting them from outside threats
• Pining Character Throws Themselves Between Crush and Lethal Danger

Again, I feel like Adrian is the pining character in these tags even if it's mutual pining! Maybe in large part because of the loyalty kink and bodyguarding elements I mentioned before. I absolutely love Adrian's dedication to Otto and his goals and how he seems to stay by his side ready to wreck shit. That final tag could be Ock turning the tables and protecting Vulture, though! That could also be very, very good. I don't have much more to say about these tags; I just want to let you know that I'd absolutely adore anything you did with them... Of course, while I don't mind if either or both characters get hurt, I just want both of them to survive and get together by the end!

• Everyone Thinks They're Already In A Relationship - They're Pining

I am an absolute sucker for this prompt with some of my ships, honestly! Specifically the ships where I could myself easily see them as having gotten together either before canon even starts or at some point during it offscreen. That is definitely the case for these two, and I could just see other characters basically having the same response of "well, you two seem like a couple" and just assuming they are! This would work really well for mutually pining but it could also work for Adrian pining and Otto taking his comfort and pleasure being around Adrian a little bit for granted, it just feeling totally natural so he didn't even immediately think anything of it, but the assumptions have him reassessing how he even feels. Or I'd be into both of them reassessing their feelings and starting to pine after the first assumption or two that they're together!

• Life Threatening Situation Prompts Confession of Feelings

I don't mind if it's during the life threatening situation when they confess or if it's after something terrible almost happened to one or both of them, and it could work both with Adrian pining for Otto or both of them pining for one another! And what is the source of the life threatening situation? You could use a lot of villains for this; the most fitting might be Tombstone deciding to finally take out some of the competition (whether personally or sending the Enforcers), the Green Goblin reappearing, or Venom holding a grudge over Otto's threat to remove and study Spider-Man's suit during the first Sinister Six episode (even though Ock'd had no idea it was a symbiote), but maybe Roderick Kingsley finally becomes the Hobgoblin or someone new shows up? (Officer Stan Carter becomes the Sin-Eater?) Or a situation could have just gotten out of control and they were trapped in a dangerous place or scenario or some accident almost happened? I am also fine with either or both character being hurt, just nothing gory or permanent and of course no actual death.

• Pining Character Awkwardly Trying To Show Affection Through Small Gestures

You know, even with mutual pining, I feel like post-Doctor Octopus Otto wouldn't actually be all that awkward with this, but I could be wrong! Still, I feel like even in a mutual pining situation, Adrian might be the subject of this particular tag. I also love the idea that Adrian really isn't very experienced with showing or communicating affection but really does not only want to try for Otto but actually feels like it with him. I also feel like, for lack of a better way to phrase it, Adrian's love language might be acts of service so he might default to trying to do things for Otto, little or big... and that kinda circles back around to loyalty kink, because I could see Vulture's immense quiet loyalty to Doctor Octopus and his constant presence as a way of showing his affection and devotion. You could play with a lot of things with this, though; I just absolutely love the idea!

• Pining while having wounds tended
• Pining while tending someone's wounds

A lighter take on the "they're in dangerous situations" prompts, this one is more after the fact! Somewhat bad injuries are kind of fun (like broken bones level), just no gore, permanent injuries, or in this case probably no injuries that would leave them in need of a real hospital. Maybe they escaped from a battle with other villains, or Spider-Man, or maybe one even got arrested and the other swooped in to jailbreak them (or free them from the cop car before they even got to the jail lmao). I am just totally here for one or both of them patching up the other's somewhat minor wounds, it being something they're getting used to doing and trusting one another to do! This could also be combined with various other caretaking tropes such as one making or bringing the other food or drink, helping bathe the other, or the injured party falling asleep on the other or the other sitting by while the injured one sleeps (maybe even holding his hand!) or even bedsharing! But mostly I just love the tenderness and care and H/C and pining.

• Pining while imprisoned

Okay, the first thing that came to my mind for this one was pining while they're both in prison. Like, either after Doctor Octopus's first arrest or a post-canon arrest (or handwaving the idea that they both got arrested at the end of Gangland), while they're both cellmates in Ryker's. Them being cellmates is somehow just incredibly iddy to me and being forced into even closer quarters than usual sharing a cell feels like a great situation for pining. They could also stick up for one another/back each other up in there and so on! Of course, you could also have Adrian pining for Otto while he's in Ryker's before the Doctor Octopus thing even happened, or after their re-arrest when Otto was sent to Ravencroft instead; I'd also be happy with an interpretation where Adrian is free and pining for Otto while Otto is still in Ravencroft, or if you go with Ock being arrested at the end of Gangland but Vulture getting away. Or some post-canon arrest, again, of either of them, sent to Ryker's or Ravencroft, or separated in two different places! If they aren't together in prison I'd love for them to be reunited by the end of the fic.

• A starts to court hard-to-woo!B; A's unaware that B has been pining for A for years and still is

Okay, unlike with pretty much all of the other tags, I automatically thought of Otto as A and Adrian as B, mostly because Adrian absolutely comes across as harder to woo. (I mean, when Ock and Vulture showed up to the auction with two arm candy ladies, they were both on Ock's arms and Vulture was standing several feet away looking unimpressed. And then the next night they came back with no ladies. It makes me laugh for a lot of reasons but I definitely feel like how not into them Adrian was works for this prompt!) Adrian probably also seemed pretty hard to woo even before the Vulture thing, so I can see Otto having no idea that Adrian might have been pining for him since years before canon even started. And I like the idea that the Doctor Octopus transformation and Otto's newfound confidence might lead to him (at least eventually) deciding to start trying to court Adrian, whether he too has been pining for a while or if he's just gotten more and more fond recently. This is just a fun tag that I really love the thought of!

• They Couldn't Possibly Be Ignorant Of How I Feel So I Assume They Must Not Be Interested

I don't have as much to say for this one, but I'll admit, even in a mutual pining situation I feel like this assumption makes a lot of sense for Adrian specifically in the sense of... well, Otto is obviously a genius and pays attention to a lot and has also known Adrian for years. He even seems like he might be noticing and thinking about even more things after his transformation than before! That said, if they're both pining I can see Otto also holding Adrian's intelligence in high esteem and/or thinking that he knows him well enough that he must have picked up on it. This is another one of those where one or both intelligent characters having a blind spot for this one emotional thing could work really well.

• Tiny Acts of Affection that Doom Pining Character to Ardent Love

This could be great for Adrian pining or for both of them pining! Has Otto's Doctor Octopus transformation made him more confident to openly show his affection so the new tiny acts of affection he shows make Adrian fall in love/abruptly realize he's in love and start pining (or make his already existing pining far worse), or has Otto always done sweet little acts of affection? (Maybe they're different ones now, or more, or maybe they're the same!) And/or has Adrian actually become somehow happier with the freedom as Vulture and working so closely with Otto (and maybe also happy to see Otto's transformation and newfound confidence and happiness) and that has him also giving small affectionate gestures when he had trouble doing anything like that in the past, or did he also used to do tiny little acts of affection towards Otto specifically that he would not have for anyone else? There are a lot of ways you could play with this and I'd love any of them!

Canon-Specific DNWs

• any of the Sinister Six, especially these two specifically, being presented as irredeemably crazy/evil
• either character betraying the other
• honestly, any of the Sinister Six betraying each other (Shocker not included, he's an Enforcer first and foremost, he was just on loan)
• Electro being referred to as anything other than Electro if he shows up/is mentioned

Canon-Specific Likes

• noncanon background pairings I actually enjoy if they happen to come up: Mysterio/Tinkerer(/Chameleon), Sandman/Rhino
• Otto/Adrian/Electro is noncanon poly I would be totally okay with, so long as Otto and Adrian have heavy focus; obviously this is not necessary
• generally I like Sinister Six poly even if it's not the focus, actually, if the rest of the Sinister Six are included, I just really want Otto and Adrian to be heavily focused on!
• NICKNAMES/PET NAMES, and honestly, I count how Otto and Adrian always seem to address each other by their first names; I also like, if you include him in the fic at all, the way Electro always calls Otto "Doc" and seems to call Adrian "Vulch" and they are both totally open to being called those things from him!
• if you're interested, I like trans headcanons for either/both of these characters; for both of them I'm happy with anything, nonbinary or trans man or trans woman. trans headcanons for any other Sinister Six if they show up are also 100% good; I would prefer Electro as a trans woman or nonbinary if you write that character as trans, but anything goes for all the rest of them! and of course trans headcanons aren't obligatory!

The Spectacular Spider-Man (Cartoon)
Phineas Mason/Quentin Beck
(Phineas pining or both pining; feelings eventually requited)

[Where you can find the series: Here!
Most Pertinent Episodes:
For the two together - S1E10 (Persona); S2E1 (Blueprints); S2E3 (Reinforcement)
For Phineas - S2E4 (Shear Strength); S2E9 (Probable Cause) (scene at the beginning)
For Quentin - S2E12 (Opening Night) (admittedly just for the robot reveal tbh)]

THESE TWO MAKE ME HAPPY. When we're first introduced to them they're the kinda grouchy-seeming professionals working with Chameleon and playing a dumb card-flicking game in "bisexuals can't sit normally" fashion while they wait. They're basically Chameleon's backup in that episode, and you don't get to see fully what they're like until the second season, but I really like the juxtaposition of how they are in this episode as compared to later ones! (Personally, I feel as if neither of them had their supervillain identities at all until somewhere between "Persona" and "Blueprints" when the Master Planner hired them. I also feel that they'd been working together for at least a little while before their introductory episode, though who was the first to work with who, out of the three of them, and for how long, is totally up to you. Also up to you whether they usually call each other by first name or last name, and how often they call each other by supervillain name nowadays!)

Quentin Beck used to be a special effects technician before leaving for his life of crime, and he's got a very interesting balance between his real self and the Mysterio act that I find really fun! He's a professional and Mysterio is an overly-theatrical fuckin dork, but Quentin is also deep down (and not so deep down) a theatrical dork. I can imagine that Quentin puts some of the things he wants to be into Mysterio, because that's common for supervillains and superheroes both, but Mysterio is also a role he plays for a specific purpose: misdirection, keeping people focused on him rather than his tricks or the crimes his act is distracting away from! That said, he got hired to be Mysterio for the thefts and then just decided that was fun as hell and absolutely wanted to do from then on, so there's also that element to him. I feel like he's also enjoying getting to be center stage as Mysterio in a way he doesn't get to be on jobs with Chameleon. Phineas Mason, on the other hand, is an inventor who rolls his eyes at "actors" being theatrical but is absolutely theatrical himself even if he won't admit it. I don't think he's an actor, not in the way that Chameleon and Quentin are; he was wayyy in the background in "Persona" in non-speaking roles whenever his presence was necessary out in the field, and he seems to prefer to stay back and provide "technical support" and make things for other people to use. But he obviously has fun leaning into the mad scientist supervillain act at least a little ("allow me to introduce our host and benefactor"; "welcome to your lair, Master Planner"; "all that remains is calibration... and testing") and occasionally amuses himself making dorky jokes ("put even more 'ric' in your 'ochet'"). I also imagine he has no criminal record (the arrest at the end of "Persona" didn't seem to stick and one of the cops did say in the first episode that the people Spider-Man apprehends nearly always walk...) and is staying in the background to avoid getting one for as long as possible, because him being able to work within the law is really convenient for them.

Basically, though, I love the dynamic of two characters who are just doing this shit because they love it, who've been working together a while and are developing supervillain personas kind of simultaneously mostly for the fun of it. I have a feeling Tinkerer made most of the robots and tech that Mysterio uses, though Quentin himself also contributed the "will-weaking" gas and the mask and makeup for his own android. (Which also means that the reason Quentin is just never arrested after "Persona" and it's always a goddamn android is thanks to Phineas, which makes me smile.) Phineas might not even charge him for that stuff! Just in general they're basically married and I love that.

Requested Tags

• Character A pines for B seeing them with a new/different look
• Character pines for someone who thinks nothing of undressing casually in front of them

I just love this for them given how much costumes and disguises are a part of what they do, especially Beck but it's also true of Mason to some degree! The first tag is incredibly easy to do with Phineas as Character A, and you could easily have "a new/different look" be the whole Mysterio thing. I love that. However, it could also be a mutual thing with Phineas as Tinkerer really leaning into the whole long coat aesthetic and going full labcoat mad-scientist-inventor and Quentin finding that endearing. (Maybe he also appreciates how theatrical Phineas is deep down even if Phineas might not admit it!) Or it could be Beck or both of them in some sort of disguise during a job, either pre-series or post-series with Chameleon or doing something with the Sinister Six! Or, hell, it could be them getting all dressed up for some reason for a change, again either pre- or post-canon. Finally, for the second tag, well... they do a lot of disguises and changing costumes, again especially Beck. I bet they really have changed in front of one another in the past, it probably really is a casual thing for them, or at least the one that isn't pining. (Or maybe they both are pining but Beck still doesn't think anything about the changing somehow. Actors.)

• Character A pines for close friend who is unaware
• Character B figures out that Character A has been pining for them for years
• Long-term pining is finally resolved

For any of these tags, Character A feels like it should be Phineas, but honestly for the first and last it could just as easily be both of them and I would be good with it. With the first tag, is it mutual pining with both unaware? Why are both unaware? Is it in part because they're both caught up in their own feelings, or are they both trying to hide it for whatever reason? (Not wanting to ruin friendship and not wanting to throw off/complicate their working relationship are two other tag possibilities...) Or if it's just Mason pining and Beck is unaware, what might clue Beck into it, or would Mason eventually have to come clean, or would Beck have to start to feel the same and independently make a move of his own before Mason considers doing so? And, of course, with the other two tags, Beck figuring or eventually finding out that this has been some years-long pining on Mason's part really gets to me!

• Character pines for the person they're rescuing
• Character pines for their rescuer

Okay, I really love these two rescuing one another but in very different ways. Mysterio is a more active figure (and Beck seemed to take more risks even before becoming Mysterio, tbqh) but Tinkerer is backup waiting in the wings to swoop in with machines and help extract people from bad situations! Is the person being rescued fighting or just being faced with a powerful enemy (maybe even saving their life!) or even Spider-Man (for a given value of rescue), have they been abducted (Hammerhead might resent Tinkerer for the Enforcements thing, or Tombstone or Silvermane could decide to go after one or the other of them for being loyal to Doctor Octopus, or the Green Goblin could resurface...), or is this an extraction while someone is tied up before the police arrive or a jailbreak? Finally, if Phineas is being rescued, this could even be set during or right after Shear Strength; as I said in another letter, "if Spider-Man left Phineas hanging halfway up the side of the building after that combo of car crash and psychological torture, that's a great opportunity for Quentin to rescue and H/C" (and pining).

• Cover story complicates hidden feelings

I am so into the cover story being fake dating or fake marriage! Either between each other or one of them faking a relationship with Chameleon, potentially. If you do go with the latter, I'm not the biggest fan of jealousy-jealousy and I'd prefer if the person not in the fake relationship with Chameleon doesn't even think Chameleon is a "threat," knows he's not interested, but is like "wow I wish that were me." Or the one who's pining might be having to fake a relationship with Chameleon and having to try to do a good job, and maybe the other even realizes their feelings because of watching it? (Or is just like "why are you so bad at acting all of a sudden?" That could also be funny.) But sincerely I would also loooove if they had to pretend to be in a relationship with each other and either both of them are dying inside or Beck is giving the act his ALL and Mason is just dying inside. And then they kiss and/or fuck for real?

• Everyone Thinks They're Already In A Relationship - They're Pining

I am an absolute sucker for this prompt with some of my ships, honestly! Specifically the ships where I could myself easily see them as having gotten together either before canon even starts or at some point during it offscreen. That is definitely the case for these two, and I could just see other characters basically having the same response of "well, you two seem like a couple" and just assuming they are! Hell, maybe even working for Chameleon their dynamic shifted enough that he just assumed they got together at some point -- or post-canon they reunite with him and their changed dynamic since becoming Mysterio and Tinkerer makes him think so? This would work really well for mutually pining but it could also work for Mason pining and Beck taking his comfort and pleasure being around Mason kinda for granted, it just feeling natural so he didn't even immediately think anything of it, but the assumptions have him reassessing how he even feels. Or I'd be into both of them reassessing their feelings and starting to pine after the first assumption or two that they're together!

• Life Threatening Situation Prompts Confession of Feelings

I don't mind if it's during the life threatening situation when they confess or if it's after something terrible almost happened to one or both of them, and it could work both with Mason pining for Beck or both of them pining for one another! And what is the source of the life threatening situation? You could use a lot of villains for this; the most fitting might be Tombstone (whether personally or via the Enforcers), Silvermane, the Green Goblin reappearing, or Venom holding a grudge over Otto's threat to remove and study Spider-Man's suit during the first Sinister Six episode (even though Ock'd had no idea it was a symbiote), but maybe Roderick Kingsley finally becomes the Hobgoblin or someone new shows up? (Officer Stan Carter becomes the Sin-Eater?) Or Hammerhead tries to attack, kill, or abduct (or even succeeds in abducting) Tinkerer for his work for Tombstone with Enforcers? Or a situation could have just gotten out of control and they were trapped in a dangerous place or scenario or some accident almost happened? Or, finally, I would be totally good with one or both of the characters treating the situation in Shear Strength like Phineas actually came close to dying! I am also fine with either or both character being hurt, just nothing gory or permanent and of course no actual death.

• pining because character(s) worries about ruining their friendship
• Pining silently due to worry it will ruin working relationship

These are two different reasons for Phineas or the both of them not admitting to their feelings! Hell, both could be true, even. I could see them appreciating their friendship enough not to want to push for more, but I could also see them being wary about complicating a good working relationship, especially in early days but maybe also even later. I do love characters who care so much just the way things are and don't want to risk losing what they do have, and that eventually coming to a head with either the pining one (or one of the pining ones) risking it or the one not pining finding/figuring it out and/or making a movie himself.

• Pining Character A has paid attention and knows B incredibly well

I AM SO INTO THIS TAG. It is so incredibly iddy to me to have a character just know a lot of little things about the object of their affection because they pay attention and have picked up a lot of casual mentions and habits! Have one or both of them picked up on the other's favorite foods, or have an instinct for what the other might want them to pick up while they're out, or can they read the other's expressions and body language really well? Is it purposeful or is it all casual and maybe even the pining one(s) doesn't think much of absently showing that they know the other incredibly well? I just love this.

• Pining while having wounds tended
• Pining while tending someone's wounds

A lighter take on the "they're in dangerous situations" prompts, this one is more after the fact! Somewhat bad injuries are kind of fun (like broken bones level), just no gore, permanent injuries, or in this case probably no injuries that would leave them in need of a real hospital. Maybe Mysterio escaped from a battle with other villains, or Spider-Man, or Tinkerer gets rescued or escapes from being attacked or captured by someone (Tombstone, Enforcers, Hammerhead, Silvermane?) or maybe one even got arrested and the other swooped in to jailbreak them (or extract them before the cops even showed up lol). You could even go with Phineas having minor injuries after what happened in Shear Strength! I am just totally here for one or both of them patching up the other's somewhat minor wounds, it being something they're getting used to doing and trusting one another to do. This could also be combined with various other caretaking tropes such as one making or bringing the other food or drink, helping bathe the other, or the injured party falling asleep on the other or the other sitting by while the injured one sleeps (maybe even holding his hand!) or even bedsharing! But mostly I just love the tenderness and care and H/C and pining.

• Pining while sharing a bed
• Slow Dancing while Pining
• Travelling together while hiding pining

These tags are just soft and tropey physical proximity tags and I love them. For the first, why are they sharing a bed? New or small hideout that doesn't have enough beds? Are they, well, traveling together and sharing a hotel room and whoops it was a one-bedroom for some reason (either it was all there was, or there was a mix-up, or they were undercover as dating/married)? Some other reason? With slow dancing, are they pretending to be in a relationship at some function or are they just in a situation where they decide to dance (on an outing, at a wedding?) and one or both is pining hardcore during and/or Beck is like "...oh." Finally, with traveling together, there's the bedsharing possibility but also others! Are they driving and switching off driving duties? Is it more than just the two of them (Chameleon or some of the Sinister Six) and they're in close proximity in the backseat? Are they enjoying a vacation and whoever's pining likes seeing the other enjoying themself? Are they stuck in the wilderness, maybe even having to huddle for warmth? (I will also accept Canadian Shack fic, metaphorical or literal.) Or maybe "travelling together" is very literal and they're on the back of one of the flight machines (cloud or dragon) that Tinkerer made for Mysterio, maybe even just going across NYC; does one need to hold onto the other for practicality's sake or is Phineas maybe not the happiest with heights after Shear Strength?

• Trapped in Fake Perfect World that includes relationship with object of pining

I won't even lie I am SO INTO THIS IDEA. Whether it's supernatural/superpower or technological, hell, maybe even something Tinkerer made for someone himself and did not expect to get caught up in (maybe the "including relationship" part is a total accident, even, it's just that it is a "perfect world"...). Whatever the case, I have to admit, I love the idea of Beck going in to get Mason out of there and knowing it's a lotus-eater machine scenario and then realizing that Mason has feelings for him because of the relationship thing... Whether it's mutual pining or Beck has to reassess his feelings for Mason after that... Just, ugh, this idea is catnip for me. I love it.

• Unexpectedly being kissed by the person you're pining for

I JUST LOVE THIS ONE. Not much to say about it, it's very straightforward, but I am a sucker for it. I maybe especially love Mason pining for Beck for ages and then suddenly Beck kissing him (whether it was mutual pining for a long while or not), but it being mutual pining and Beck only realizing that when Mason kisses him is also very good. What is the context of the kiss? Realizing one's own feelings for the first time, a culmination of pining, or something more casual or super impulsive? Relief, celebration, desperation in an undercover situation... If it's Phineas pining for Quentin, I'd also be into, like, Quentin casually kissing him while undercover as a couple without immediately thinking much of it (acting!) while Phineas is DYING INSIDE, or even something like teasing in a mistletoe situation or something because he Does Not Realize.

Canon-Specific DNWs

• these two, Chameleon, or really any of the Sinister Six being presented as irredeemably crazy/evil
• betrayal of or by Chameleon; honestly, any of the Sinister Six betraying each other, including them turning on Ock or Ock on them (Shocker not included, he's an Enforcer first and foremost, he was just on loan)
• Electro being referred to as anything other than Electro if he shows up/is mentioned

Canon-Specific Likes

• noncanon background pairings I actually enjoy if they happen to come up: Doctor Octopus/Vulture(/Electro), Sandman/Rhino
• generally I like Sinister Six poly even if it's not the focus, actually, if the Sinister Six are included
• nicknames! pet names! I count Chameleon's habit of referring to literally everyone by surname as this tbh, I like that he calls these two Beck and Mason, and that they call him Chameleon as that seems to be how he wants to be known. I like Electro's habit of calling Doctor Octopus "Doc" and Vulture "Vulch"; if he shows up in the fic, maybe he calls them "Mysty" and/or "Tink"? (If so I'd rather they like it than hate it.) I would love them calling each other endearments, them calling each other by surname as well but it still being intimate, them calling each other by supervillain name (teasingly? flirtatiously?), them calling each other by their first names or even Quentin calling Phineas "Phin" is fine. I love any type of this shit.
• any type of h/c stuff is great but if you want to set anything after that bit in "Shear Strength" with the car accident and psychological torture, I would love to see Phineas get rescued, helped, comforted after that; feel free to go with other h/c scenarios though, they are ALL excellent, any type of job or situation going wrong and one or both getting hurt or put in danger!
• if you're interested, I like trans headcanons for either/both of these characters! I like the idea of Phineas as a trans man (though nonbinary or trans woman are acceptable), and I could see Quentin as anything really, and if Chameleon is included I especially like nonbinary for him. trans headcanons for any other Sinister Six if they show up are also 100% good; I would prefer Electro as a trans woman or nonbinary if you write that character as trans, but anything goes for all the rest of them! and of course trans headcanons aren't obligatory!

Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Year One
Otto Octavius/Peter Parker
(Otto pining or both pining; feelings eventually requited)

[Where you can find the mini-series (5 issues): Here!]

Ohhh boy I can't even explain in short form how and why I love this verson of these two specifically so much, but I really, really do. I am often inclined to take this miniseries as its own specific mini-canon for a few reasons: given their meeting they seem closer in age than in the main 616 continuity and Spider-Man seems to have been doing his TV appearance thing in his late teens instead of at like 15-16; Otto can sense the radiation in Spider-Man's blood, which would make Peter keeping his identity secret for any length of time really hard; Otto seems to have a very specific personality in these issues, a very specific obsession with Spider-Man that I am HERE for, and it would not actually be hard to interpret the Doctor Octopus thing as a one-off occurrance, even, if you wanted to...

Which is honestly a possibility I'm intrigued by. Not necessarily that the Doctor Octopus thing was definitely a one-off, but that Otto Octavius hasn't 100% gone down that road yet, not seeming to remember that span of time by the end of the miniseries. An implication that his time as Doctor Octopus had been a psychotic break and/or that he had been heavily dissociating. There's a lot of room to play with him being potentially redeemable at this point in his "career" and some of my prompts lend themselves well to that.

That said, I am also really fascinated by this specific version of Ock/Spidey having so much early-days obsession. Otto seemed enthralled the moment he saw Spider-Man on TV and seeing those webspinners actually inspired him to "become a cyborg too" and create his metal arms! When Spider-Man showed up to fight Doctor Octopus, part of Ock's ranting was delight over Spider-Man showing up, appreciation of his movements, fascination over his powers (which he thought were technological in nature), calling him "brother" and inviting him to rule the world with him! As soon as Spider-Man punched him he reacted with utter betrayal and attacked him as if he were worse than any of the other bullies or abusers Otto had known because of the added element of betrayal. Ock stood naked in front of his research on a spider-tracer talking feverishly about both of them being exposed and coming to know everything about Spider-Man, then rambled at the Tinkerer about understanding Spider-Man completely and that understanding someone completely inevitably made you despise them (and at the end seemed to expect the same to be true in return; "we are hideous, are we not?"). The first issue starts in a museum with tiny Otto Octavius enraptured by the Vitruvian Man, "a seamless convergence of art, science, and engineering... the human body as geometric shape, suggesting a divine order to the universe"; the final issue ends in Ryker's with, well, this.

We get much less on Peter's thoughts and responses than Otto's, but that final confrontation between them gives us a glimpse at more than just Spidey seeming angry, frustrated, or disgusted by an enemy. How he responds once Otto seems to start to break through Doctor Octopus and begs Spider-Man "please don't hit me again," the look on his face when Otto quietly asks for his glasses and says he'll get in trouble if he broke them (and then the general smashes them), the way Spidey goes to pick up the broken glasses and put them on Otto's face for him and the look in his eye... Even with the weird stress in his "no, we're not" response I feel like that scene is meant to be read with a great deal of sympathy. Despite the awful events of Doctor Octopus's rampage and their hardcore fights, they seem to have reached an interesting point by the end of the miniseries that I'd love to see explored!

I could talk a lot about other things, like how obviously Otto and Peter are meant to be paralleled in a lot of ways, including giving Otto a temporary love interest in Mary Alice, but how also Spidey and Mary Alice seem to be paralleled in some interesting ways themselves, particularly both of them putting Otto's glasses on him and Otto painting both of them... I could say a lot about Otto's upbringing, the unpleasant dichotomy of his abusive father and his increasingly emotionally incestuous, sex-shaming mother... But this is getting long so I'll just leave it at that. TL;DR I really love this little mini-series and want something to pick up at the end of it and really roll around in these two's emotions!

Requested Tags

• Caretaking And Kind Gestures For Pining Character Who Isn't Used To Them

Okay, legit, Otto is the one who really isn't used to them, so even if it's mutual pining he'd be the one this tag is talking about I'm sure. Peter has his Aunt May and has had at least a few friends; Otto had his smothering mother and then Mary Alice who he seemed to have absolutely zero idea how to react to, and legitimate help and caretaking and kind gestures would probably still throw him for a huge loop. I'm interested in how Otto not knowing how to deal with these things seems to kind of freak him out, how feeling things for someone else seems to make him feel guilty, and how he seems afraid of both hurting people and enjoying hurting people and it's made even worse when it's people he cares about. But also just in general I love the idea of Spider-Man trying to be kind and gentle with him and Otto just having no idea what to do.

• Character A tries to convince themself that a platonic relationship is enough
• Character silently pines for someone due to fear of ruining their existing relationship
• Desperately Wants to Be Considered a Friend by Their Crush

Again, the first and third of these almost certainly apply to Otto specifically even in a mutual pining situation! I can see Otto desperately wanting Spider-Man to see him as a friend, a sibling in the atom, after all of that, and telling himself that a friend is certainly enough, maybe even if that it would be wrong to want more (hi, Otto's issues with relationships). For the second tag, though, I could see it being Otto or I could see it being both of them! "Existing relationship" could be an actual friendship but it could also be just a warily on decent terms thing that either or both of them are really uncertain how to proceed with and don't want to somehow break. Certainly not with weird and maybe inappropriate feelings!!!

• Character apologizes for pining

I don't have much to say about this, but... Otto would. I mean, seriously. Given his issues with relationships because of his mother, maybe especially after how things went down with Mary Alice, I feel like if Spider-Man found out or figured out that he had feelings, or if Otto blurted them out, Otto would then promptly apologize for it. Guy is not good with this stuff. :(

• Guilt over enjoying friendly hugs/physical closeness too much
• Guilty About Sexual Attraction
• Pining while dealing with internalized homophobia

Following from the above, I could maybe have combined these with that one but these seem more specifical. The sexual attraction one is actually the closest to fully canon, given his mother's accusations about Mary Alice and his own reaction to them, but that meanst the first tag could follow on easily from that. As for the third tag, the combination of that sex-shaming from his mother and the abuse from his father likely meant an environment where having any desires for other boys, or seeming like he might, would not have gotten a good response from either parent. I chose that tag specifically instead of pining due to internalized homophobia because I'd rather there were some other reasons for Otto not admitting his feelings, but internalized homophobia adding another element to things could work very well.

• Hit With Intense Pining After Being Given Items By Love Interest

I won't lie, I again feel like the one this tag is talking about is Otto, and for some reason the first thing I thought of was Spider-Man just giving him some kinda Christmas or birthday gift or something while he's in Ravencroft. You know, something to do. More art supplies or a book full of da Vinci's art. Hell, even getting letters from Spider-Man could work for this. I bet he'd sleep with them under his pillow and I'm not even joking. I don't have as much to say about this one but I really love it!

• Hurt pined-for character turns up on pining character's doorstep (didn't know where else to go)
• Hurt pining character turns up on pined-for character's doorstep (didn't know where else to go)

Okay, for the first one, Otto would probably have to be out of Ryker's. Was he released and is he actually trying to live a normal life? Or did he break out? If he broke out is he still trying to keep to himself and not cause trouble, or is he considering doing the supervillain thing, or is he hesitating to do so and potentially might not? Does Spider-Man show up at, like, his apartment, or does he show up at Otto's hideout but he still trusts Otto enough to do this? For the second one, the question is how Otto got hurt -- did he get attacked as Otto Octavius or has he been operating as Doctor Octopus (only in his right mind this time)? Has he known that Peter Parker is Spider-Man for a while or does he track him down somehow specifically for this? (That ability to feel the radiation in Spider-Man's blood is very helpful and also FASCINATING to me.) Whatever the case, I really like these two being tied up in each other and caring about one another and things being early-days enough that they don't have the worst history and Otto might even not become (or potentially stop being) Doctor Octopus.

• A makes creative works inspired by their pining for B and B notices

Again. Even if it's mutual pining, Otto is A. This is just straight-up canon with the Vitruvian Spider-Man, and while that was the only thing in canon I would also love if Otto's just... done a lot of paintings and drawings of Spider-Man. Not all of the ones he does being of Spider-Man, of course, but going back to that well more than once. Even if it's just the one, though, if Spider-Man (or Peter Parker) visits Otto at Ravencroft, he'd almost certainly see at least that one particular piece of artwork! You could build a lot from there...

• A pines for B while being comforted by them
• A pines for B while comforting them
• A pines for B while protecting them from outside threats

If Otto is comforting Spider-Man, maybe he knows who Peter is and maybe not, but maybe he found out about Uncle Ben's death whether in specific terms or in a more general sense? Or maybe Spider-Man is shaken up about not being able to save someone else? Or Aunt May had her heart attack? Or maybe comfort is physical comfort; the tending wounds tags are also totally good here! If Peter is comforting Otto (either as himself or Spider-Man), maybe Otto found out about his mother's death, or maybe it's just... general comforting him that he's not as fucked up a person as he seems to think he is, or that he can be better, or again it can be wound tending if he ran into any trouble outside of Ravencroft (or even was attacked by a guard inside). For the final tag Otto could be A whether just he is pining or both are pining, but Peter could also be A if they're both pining! Is Spider-Man protecting Otto from someone or Doctor Octopus from his enemies, or is Otto's second act as Doctor Octopus actually to help save Spider-Man?

• Pining Character tries to change for object of pining
• A thinks B won't want them because of their past behavior

You could really play with some guilt with Otto and/or trying to make things right. For the first, I could see Spider-Man encouraging and believing in Otto enough that it makes him decide not to go the supervillain route, or turn away from it, even if it's hard! I could even see Otto trying to "get better" and honestly deal with at least some of his issues, damn. For the second, I could definitely see Otto being like "well after what I did as Doctor Octopus, he might have said he doesn't think we are hideous, but he must think the things I've done are too terrible" but maybe Spider-Man is even like, look, you were completely freaking out and don't even remember most of the details of those few days, pretty safe to say that wasn't exactly you driving. I just really like these ideas a lot and you could have fun playing with them!

• pining characters worries about hurting the character they love if they got together
• Realizing your feelings are mutual and it's kind of terrifying

OTTO HAS SO MANY ISSUES ABOUT THAT FIRST TAG, OKAY? HOLY SHIT. He always seemed legitimately shaken by the nuclear fantasies he had, and then after being cruel to Mary Alice he was so torn up about it that he was freaked out that he'd enjoyed it (maybe he did or maybe he just felt good that he had "done the right thing" by "punishing" her and himself, given what his mother had said!), and he must have been informed that he'd killed some people while Doctor Octopus, and he might eventually find out/have found out that he tried to kill Mary Alice (though he couldn't bring himself to hurt her)... I could very, very easily see all of this coming together to make Otto at least a little petrified that he is unsafe for anyone to get close to much less love. Plus the general guilt for having any "dirty" desires. That is unfortunately a lot of stuff meaning it makes too much sense for Otto to decide he can't ever mention his feelings or make any moves and he might even panic if Peter made the first move. (Even before a lot of the worst happened he sprinted the fuck away from Mary Alice after she kissed him!) For the second tag... Well, those are a lot of reasons it might be terrifying. If Peter also finds it kinda terrifying, maybe it's just a general "having strong feelings for someone is terrifying" thing or maybe it's because Otto is (was?) Doctor Octopus and they might be enemies or maybe it's legit just because Peter's afraid of hurting him. Because I bet he can tell Otto's got issues that make him kinda miserable and panicked. Lotta fun upset feelings in these particular tags, lol. (I do obviously want them to work it out in the end, at least wanting to try!)

• They Couldn't Possibly Be Ignorant Of How I Feel So I Assume They Must Not Be Interested

I don't have as much to say for this one, but I'll admit, even in a mutual pining situation I once again feel like this assumption makes a lot of sense for Otto specifically. Especially with the art stuff but also the way he speaks sometimes with such devotion, I can see him thinking that he's being very blatant and if Peter just does not realize he's into him Otto might assume that Spider-Man is trying to shut him down gently. This could work whether Peter is totally oblivious and doesn't have feelings yet himself or doesn't realize them, or if Otto assumes he must know and just not be interested while Peter has no goddamn clue and is also pining. Both are cute ideas and I could really enjoy either take!

Canon-Specific DNWs

• Otto being presented as irredeemably crazy/evil, treating Doctor Octopus like a full-on alternate personality included
• infidelity (just reiterating this here to specify that this would probably be around the time of Peter dating Betty Brant but that whatever the case you can just handwave that they didn't get together or amicably broke up)
• Otto having or developing romantic feelings for Aunt May in this universe

Canon-Specific Likes

• nicknames! pet names! what does Spidey call Otto when Otto's not being Doctor Octopus? Otto, Dr. Octavius, Doc, Dr. O? does he still call him Ock or Doc Ock or Octopus or Doctor Octopus at any point; is Otto fine with that or does he protest (either because he doesn't want to be called that or because it's not strictly accurate at that point)? does Otto call him Spider-Man, "my friend," brother(/sister/sibling if trans headcanon), like in canon, does he ever learn Peter's name and call him that? do either of them ever use other nicknames or endearments if they become closer?
• I just really love that weirdass thing Otto can do where he can apparently sense the radiation in Spider-Man's blood, so playing with that, having him able to sense when Spider-Man is nearby/in what direction, even having him figure out that Peter Parker is Spider-Man through it, would be excellent!
• Otto's Issues With Relationships And Attraction (and/or his fear of his own kneejerk fantasies/desires to Hurt)
• how much art is Otto drawing of Spider-Man???? is it a lot? I'd be into it if it was more than just the Vitruvian Spider-Man tbqh, that shit is so iddy to me
• if you're interested, I like trans headcanons for these characters! I can especially see nonbinary Doctor Octopus (even if Otto might not have the words for it in the 60s, but I'm fine with either just pretending they/them pronouns are accepted or going with he/him) but trans man and trans woman both work for me for different reasons as well; I especially enjoy trans woman or nonbinary Spidey (Spider-Woman? Spider? out of costume, just Parker? other possibilities are fine!) but trans man is also totally acceptable. and of course trans headcanons aren't obligatory!

Vampire Cleanup Department (2017)
Yip Chi Chau/Yeung Chung
(Chung pining; feelings eventually requited)

[Where you can find the movie: Here!
(turn on the English closed captions in the bottom right if you need them; it's also available in Spanish!)]

Vampire Cleanup Department is a Hong Kong comedy-horror-romance movie that came out four years ago and short version: The titular VCD is a secret government-created agency that disguises themselves as cleaners but really go around using talismans and other magical items to hunt down and destroy vampires, specifically jiangshi (which means they hop around with their arms outstretched, and this is by turns played as creepy, funny, and cute). But when the main character Tim Cheung joins up after being bitten by a vampire and not turning, he finds out that his dead parents used to work for the VCD until a mission went terribly wrong, and accidentally winds up bonding with a vampire named Summer who starts changing and gaining more human emotions and mentality after biting him. He trains with the VCD while keeping the fact that he didn't actually destroy her when he was supposed to a secret.

I am here for different characters, however! And oh man I am so into them. Yip Chi Chau is Tim's "master," the ~40s-ish combat expert of the VCD who trains Tim in how to fight vampires; he knew Tim's parents and was close friends with his father, Yat Lung Cheung, and promised them that he'd take care of Tim as they were dying. Yeung Chung, or "Uncle Chung," is an older man in his 70s who's the director of the VCD and their "technical support" and a more openly kindly figure.

Where Chau is an incredibly skilled fighter and trainer, Chung is definitely not a combatant... but he is still brave enough to go into the field, and to step in to help people when they're in trouble, and he's great at directing the others during a fight. Where Chau is closed-off and hot-headed, Chung is calm, amiable, and understanding, good at being diplomatic when it's needed (and at distracting people so the others can work)... and also good at calming Chau down and redirecting him. They've worked together for decades, and despite what Chung says multiple times to Chau about training new blood so that they can eventually retire, neither of them seems to be willing to just quit. They know each other incredibly well ("Have I ever misjudged anyone? And you... never mean what you say."), Chau saved Chung and a rookie police officer in the very first scene (while Chung called for his help), when Tim was in trouble Chung called Chau back from a chase...

And in a moment that really got me, when Tim's "final test" went wrong and Chung tried to step in to help him against the vampire that was trying to kill him. Summer showed up to help as well and accidentally flung both the vampire and Chung through a table, and Chau reacted with such immediate alarm to kill the vampire before it could attack Chung! Chung was hurt and needed medical attention, and with Chung hurt and also not around to calm him down, Chau was furious with Tim. (I will also say that during that final test, Chau was acting like a nervous parent... while Chung sat on the couch and video taped everything, also like a parent, haha.)

Even when Tim is the one training the new recruits at the end of the movie, it's Chau and Chung standing on the walkway above watching and obviously still involved despite any talk of retirement, chatting and comfortable with one another. I just really love their shared history, how obvious it is that Chau cares deeply about certain people -- Chung, Tim, and Tim's father in the past -- despite him not saying it or being touchy-feely, and how comfortable with one another they are and how well they work together and know one another as people.

Requested Tags

• B is oblivious to A's pining and A wants to keep it that way
• Utterly Certain That Their Feelings Won't Be Returned

There are a lot of reasons why Chung might not want Chau to figure out/find out his feelings, and maybe at least part of it is the certainty that it wouldn't be returned. Maybe he thinks it might be inappropriate, or doesn't want to throw off how well they work together, or it's a sort of sunk cost fallacy that he can't say anything now when it's been so many years, or maybe he's just so certain... And why would he be so utterly certain? Is it because he feels he's too old for Chau, or because it's been so long without Chau feeling that way for him that he feels it's just not going to happen, or because he knows Chau was in love with Yat Lung Cheung and is still hung up on him even after his death, or any combination of the above?

• Character A pines for Character B who pines for dead character
• Long-term pining is finally resolved
• Pining character will never love another

WHOOF THAT FIRST ONE. Again, I am very intrigued by the idea that maybe Chau had feelings for Tim's father, Yat Lung Cheung, before he was bitten by a vampire and died. The idea that Chau is still pining over Yat Lung Cheung 18+ years later, and Chung is still pining over Chau 18+ years later... And yes, this ties into my long-term pining tag too, lol. I would be totally fine if Chung's developed feelings more recently! I keep defaulting to thinking he might have had feelings for the past couple decades, though. That is damn long-term. And finally, that last one again ties into the... kind of tragedy of Chau being unable and unwilling to move past Yat Lung Cheung and Chung being unable and unwilling to move past Chau. Maybe if he'd tried to move on years ago he could have found someone else, but at this point... no. Of course, if you're just using that last tag you don't need to have Chau have been in love with Tim's father at all, he might just be a bachelor. Either way, long term pining that Chung just never moved on from and by this point he knows he's not going to, he feels he's past the point where he could. I love it.

• Character A pines for close friend who is unaware
• Character A tries to convince themself that a platonic relationship is enough
• Pining silently due to worry it will ruin working relationship

These are the ones that deal with the relationship between these two! Close friendship, vampire hunters who work very well together and have for ages... Either or both could be part of the reason Chung is unwilling to communicate his feelings. For the close friendship, that could also lead into the tag about Chung knowing Chau incredibly well! Finally, with the middle tag, maybe Chung tries to convince himself that over the course of years, decades even, and tells himself he believes it. Maybe even mostly he does. Or maybe it's something he thought he'd accepted long ago but something stirs up the feelings again (maybe almost dying, or Chung almost dying... or Chung being turned into a vampire if you wanna AU that being a thing!) and he's like, wait, this has always been enough, it should still be enough, and he's trying to re-convince himself but somehow it's not working as well this time...

• Character B figures out that Character A has been pining for them for years
• Everyone Knows Except Object Of Affection

These two tags mostly go together due to the "who knows?" element so I can talk about them together! For the first, goddamn, years. Yes. As I said before, I can easily see Chung having had feelings for Chau for 18+ years, since even before Tim's parents died, but you could go with it being a smaller number of years if you like! Either way, I can imagine Chau being kinda poleaxed by the idea that Chung has been in love with him for a long, long time. (If Chau has still been pining over a dead man that's kinda hypocritical!) For the second tag, "everyone knows" I could imagine being everyone else at the VCD, at least before Tim. He might not, or he might have found out/figured it out at some point. But I could certainly see Kui, Ginger, and M knowing. Maybe even Tim's grandma. I can imagine it's one of those things no one talks about, or maybe occasionally one of them is very subtly sympathetic.

• Character will follow the object of their pining into danger or towards certain death
• A pines for B while being protected by them
• Pining Character Throws Themselves Between Crush and Lethal Danger

Their job is dangerous! People have died doing it! They both nearly died doing it during the movie! For the first tag, to be fair, it's a mutual thing and they both know the risks that come with the job, but maybe willingness to go into danger alongside Chau is a bit more personal for Chung than Chau knows. Maybe Chau still being a part of the VCD is why Chung hasn't retired yet, maybe it's why he talks about them plural getting old and retiring even though he's the older one and could already have retired but seems to not be willing to just yet? For the second, well, it seems like Chau protects Chung a fair amount; he's the combat guy after all, while Chung is very much not but is usually out in the field anyway. (Does Chau realize his own feelings after an especially close call? He did also seem to get quite upset when Chung got hurt during Tim's test!) Finally, though, for the third one, the tables could be turned because it's not like Chung didn't get up and try to help Tim without being a fighter. Does he make a quick decision that he can't let Chau die? Does he make the excuse that he's old anyway so it's fine? Does he actually finally admit to his feelings or does Chau have to figure it out and confront him about it first? I of course want both characters to survive and for things to work out for them!

• Conversations with double meanings due to pining

Okay, this one I honestly have almost zero thoughts to share for. But I WANT IT. I love double meaning shit and I can't really think of any examples or prompts but conversations where one is in love with the other and pining and somehow the things they're saying mean more than one thing and the other isn't quite picking up on it (but maybe eventually, eventually they do) is just amazing. I'm not good at it myself but that just means I would absolutely love to see what you could do with it!

• The feelings are actually reciprocated but other character(s) is/are in denial of loving them

Well, this is kind of a happy one, sort of? LOL. Chau is a stubborn, stubborn man and as Chung says, he never means what he says. Maybe that holds true of some of the things he tells himself as well. Maybe he tells himself Chung is too old, doesn't think he himself is anything but straight, doesn't think that Chung is anything but straight, thinks they've known each other for so long it's unfeasible, tells himself he's more annoyed by him than anything, tells himself it'd be inappropriate to have feelings for the director... Or maybe it's just hard to consider loving another VCD agent after Tim's parents died, whether or not Chau had ever been in love with Yat Lung Cheung. There's a lot of ways you could play with this one!

• Pining Character A has paid attention and knows B incredibly well

I AM SO INTO THIS TAG. It is so incredibly iddy to me to have a character just know a lot of little things about the object of their affection because they pay attention and have picked up a lot of casual mentions and habits! Has Chung picked up on Chau's favorite foods and tastes in media and newspapers and things? Does Chung know Chau's schedule and exactly when to make tea? Does Chung have an instinct for what Chau might want him to pick up while he's out? Can Chung read Chau's expressions and body language really well? Is it purposeful or is it all casual and maybe Chung doesn't think much of absently showing that they know Chau incredibly well? I just love this so much, especially when they've been working so closely together for at least eighteen years and Chung might even have had feelings for Chau for that long...

• Pining Character A Trying To Take Care Of B While Not Giving Away Their Feelings
• Pining while having wounds tended
• Pining while tending someone's wounds

Okay, wounds could be a general thing; you could come up with a lot of scenarios and I'd be thrilled, seriously. One or both of them could easily get hurt on the job at some point! However, they both were wounded by the end of the movie, or rather the end of the main part of the movie before the little epilogue thing. Chung had been thrown across the room into the table with the vampire and needed to go to the hospital for a bit, getting out with bandages around his head where he'd been hurt, so maybe Chau wants to make sure he's changing his bandages etc. And Chau had been bitten by a vampire! You could go with him getting the cure but still needing to have his wounds tended to and/or be nursed back to health a bit. Or you could go with an AU where there was no cure and the "taking care of" means Chung (along with the others) having to help Chau come back to himself and re-learn how to walk normally, fight, even talk and not want to bite people. Sincerely, though, just one or the other or both running into trouble on the job and ending up hurt, either mildly or up to broken bones level, could be really good. Maybe they're even out kinda in the middle of nowhere and wounds need to be tended before they even get back to the van, and/or maybe one of them needs to be helped back to the van!

• Pining A willing to let B drink their blood if they need to

Okay, with this one it needs to be an AU, but it's an AU I'm really into! Chau gets bitten by the big bad vampire at the final fight but at the end of the movie it's revealed that a cure was found and he's fine again. The moment he was bitten, though, I thought that he'd be turned into a vampire and realize that Tim had been right, and stay on with the VCD as a good vampire. I still kind of like that idea better than the actual ending of the movie, though I don't mind the movie's ending at all. Still, if you AU that Chau did get turned into a vampire, well... as we saw with Summer (and kind of the vampire during Tim's test), pig (or duck) blood curd is something vampires enjoy and can survive on. But maybe sometimes it needs to be supplemented with human blood, or maybe while Chau is still struggling with urges to bite it's better to allow him some "safe" human blood to sate that particular urge. Maybe they use blood bags, but maybe Chung is willing to donate his blood if they need to. Obviously Chau can't safely bite him so he'd need to give it in a more medical way... Or I would also be super open to you interpreting this as Chau at some point instinctively really wanting to bite Chung and starting to go to do so and Chung reacting... unusually to it, being more willing to let that happen than even he would have expected. Maybe Chau's shaken by how close he got to doing it and how Chung didn't seem about to stop him. You could write this as really emotional and tbqh you could also write this as really hot, I would be down for both/either.

Canon-Specific DNWs

• none!

Canon-Specific Likes

• noncanon background pairings I actually enjoy if they happen to come up: Ginger/Kui(/M), Tim/Winter
• I am also totally open to Chau having been in love with Yat Lung Cheung before he died
• also feel free to handwave Summer surviving if you like! literally any prompt can have things slightly AU'd this way and I'll be fine with it.
• ANOTHER AU I REALLY LIKE: if Chau was still a vampire at the end of the movie, a "good vampire" still working with the VCD, rather than a cure having been found! him trying to get back to normal and re-learn things like how to walk normally and fight and maybe talk and not want to bite people could be so good for pining!
• nicknames! pet names! names in general! they seem to refer to one another as Chau and Chung (or sometimes, semi-sarcastically, "Uncle" Chung). do they always stick to that however close they are? do they ever call one another by first name, or shift over to doing so? does Chau ever call him Old Chung or old man/grandpa in the somewhat disparaging (but still fond) sense? does Chung ever call Chau by anything like Old Chau, Young Chau, Young Chi (or Ā-chi)? or does either absently or purposefully get affectionate, calling the other something like dear/darling or old man (in the boyfriend/husband sense...) or even one of the endearment forms of silly/fool/dummy/idiot? does Chung ever call Chau Master/Sifu like Tim does, just to refer to him as Tim's master, and does it hit different coming from Chung than when Tim calls him that? seriously, I love any type of this shit, go nuts!
• some exploration of sexuality stuff for these two! Chung has a granddaughter but no other family is mentioned; is he bi and is just seperated from his wife or she died, or is he gay and he just had a wife and child back before admitting it to himself/them and they separated after that? Chau seems to be a bachelor; is he gay or bi or does he think he's straight (but oops he's not)?
• if you're interested, I could like trans headcanons for either of these characters. for Chung I most like the idea of trans man, but nonbinary is also good, just not trans woman. for Chau anything goes, though, and anything is fine for any of the other characters as well! and of course trans headcanons aren't obligatory.