YULETIDE 2015
It's that time of year again!
Thank you so much for writing for me, mystery yuletide writer! I love these fandom and have been jonesing for fic for all of them, so believe me when I say I will be pumped to read whatever you write. Everything suggested below is merely that: suggestions. Write what you want to write, and if you manage to include anything I’ve (um, excessively?) detailed here, that’s awesome, too.
I'm not kidding when I say I am honestly game for just about anything. This year especially I feel like I’d be wide open for everything from happy and warm to the other side of the spectrum of dark and weird (or maybe, somehow, a mix of both!). I love emotional co-dependency between characters (which can definitely feed into kinks, should you elect to go the porny route, but we’ll get there!) and a lot of these fandoms include characters who work together and I LOVE that slow build where people go from strangers to working together to something more (whether it be the found family variety or coworkers who sleep together or coworkers in love or something more toxic, or, you know, a complicated melange of all of the above!)
Some ADDITIONAL LIKES: character-driven stories; super messy relationships between characters weighed down with shared history (and maybe repressed feelings?); team work! ensemble stories!; sex as power play; power play in general; outsider POVs, especially when they recount details the main characters are oblivious to; dialogue (especially banter!); fake dating; sharing a bed because of Reasons™; and, if all else fails AU IN SPACE ( ... though I guess that doesn't apply to The Martian, lol). I’m totally okay with AUs, be it the canon divergence/fix-it types or the HEY THEY’RE NOW 1970s DISCO COPS! whole new world sort of AU. If a certain AU ‘verse speaks to you, by all means: run with it. I'm sure I will love it.
I'm cool with fic of any rating, be it of the ship variety or gen. I love me some ship fic (I definitely ship all the characters here) and I LOVE ME SOME PORN, but that said, I also am fascinated by these characters individually and how they relate to one another and would love to read anything about them you might cook-up. I don’t want you to feel obligated one way or the other! A lot of these are single-serving film or book canons (or a tragically canceled television series) which left me wanting as much more material about the characters as I could get.
Should you elect to go the sex route, I'm not averse to PWP, but I do prefer when the sex in a story is character-driven and rooted in emotional stakes for the characters involved. (On that same note, I am totally into emotional co-dependency between characters explored, whether it be portrayed as healthy or, you know, not-so-healthy). Other kinks/tropes I’m into: friends to lovers/fuck buddies, breathplay, orgasm denial, workplace sex, rough sex, hate sex, drunk sex, infidelity, dub-con (especially of the sex pollen/drugs/do-or-die variety). NONE OF THIS IS EXPECTED OR REQUIRED, but I figured I'd throw it out into the universe!
As for DISLIKES: rape or non-con, non-canonical character deaths, A/B/O, BDSM, scat or watersports, kid!fic, and character bashing. That's really it. The majority of the fandoms and characters I’ve requested this year lend themselves to some pretty dark material. I’m comfortable with dark themes and violence, especially if it's in step with the canon's tone.
This feels like a boatload of information, but in all seriousness: I am not difficult to please. I am truly stoked to read anything you will be writing for any of these fandoms!
(ONE LAST NOTE: Spoilers abound for all the fandoms below, but in particular for Sicario, The Martian, and Mechanique by Genevieve Valentine.)
SICARIO (2015)
Kate Macer, Matt Graver, Alejandro (Sicario)
REQUEST: Kate moves forward after the events of the film. Maybe eventually she re-teams with both Matt and Alejandro, or maybe she takes a different path, decides to stay true to her morals, and becomes a whistleblower - needless to say, Matt and Alejandro try to stop her. Details in letter.
What I really loved about this film was how each of these three characters were presented as believing they were doing what is right, or in Alejandro’s case, what is just. Both Alejandro and Matt operate by an “any means necessary” method that clashes with Kate’s “by the book” approach, but the effects of their opposing system goes beyond procedure: there’s the emotional effect it has on Kate, as she sees everything she believed in stripped away; the more macro effect it has, via the single line from the drug lord Alejandro confronts at the end: “Where do you think we learned it from?” regarding the cartel’s violent tactics; and the never-ending feedback loop that results, as Matt tells Kate early on, “This is what happens when they dig in,” justifying the chaotic - and illegal - measures he invokes. Basically, it provides the perfect setting for all sorts of conflicting and fucked-up character work I’d love to read.
For the fic, I’d really love the emphasis to be on Kate. That said, I was super into her interactions and murky relationships with both Alejandro and Matt. I would love to see that explored in further detail. Feel free to flesh out her three days from hell portrayed in the film! In particular, I’d especially love to see the aftermath of her emotional and physical confrontation with Matt after the tunnel op (“I’m going to tell everyone what you did.” / “That would be a big mistake.” I’m paraphrasing!). Or, go beyond the film! What becomes of Kate after the film? Where does she go from here? Is she enlisted for another mission by Matt? Does she leave her job with the FBI? Does she reclaim her sense of morality and dismiss the tactics employed by men like Alejandro and Matt? I think that could be a really cool route to take, especially if Kate tries to take the high road as a whistleblower - do Matt and/or Alejandro reenter her life to try and stop her? Or! Does she swing in the opposite direction and travel further down the road these men have already walked? I would love to read any of these, or anything else you might come up with.
I’m curious about both Kate/Matt (I have a real soft spot for the smug, knowing boss/disobedient, insubordinate protege potential of these two) and Kate/Alejandro, and would totally be game for some messed-up Matt/Kate/Alejandro (just putting that one on the table!).
THE MARTIAN (2015)
Melissa Lewis (The Martian (2015)), Mark Watney (The Martian (2015))
REQUEST: Everything about Commander Melissa Lewis! Also, everything about her relationship with Mark Watney. Pre-film (NASA training adventures! or further back than that and her Navy days spent on a sub!) or post-film (the long journey back to Earth on the Hermes as Mark recovers) or during the film (her POV on events and also the guilt and responsibility she feels for leaving him behind). Details in letter.
I want to know everything about Commander Melissa Lewis! There are all sorts of possible routes I'd love to read here. Her Navy backstory! Her time spent on the sub! Her NASA background! In addition to that, I'd love to know more about her relationship with Mark. How long has she known him? What was her POV during the events of the film and Mark’s time stranded on Mars?
There's the pre-film option! The long flight from Earth to Mars, the first 18 sols spent on Mars together as a team. The NASA training before the mission! Or, post-film! Their reunion! The journey back home to Earth! Or when they get back to Earth - as both try to adjust to being back home again, and to what level of success they manage. I came away from the movie shipping these two hard; I would love post-film fic about the two of them continuously drawn together after they’ve landed, after they’ve tried to resume their lives. I know she’s married, but as I’ve said, I’m totally ok with infidelity (in fact, for whatever reason that makes it that much hotter to me lol).
In lieu of ship!fic about the two of them, I would love to read anything about her (or their) time aboard the Hermes. Hey, feel free to get festive and write about the holidays on the Hermes en route to Earth!
On a completely different potential prompt path - SPACE MADNESS. While I really, really loved that this film was hopeful and optimistic, there’s a terrible part of me that yearns for something so much darker and so much more messed-up. Go full-tilt crazy here! Mark Watney comes back from Mars, but he comes back … wrong. Cue the nightmarish trip back to Earth as Lewis and the rest of the Ares 3 team start to realize this isn’t the Mark Watney they remember. (Double points if you appeal to my dark-sided heart with some truly messed-up, murky Watney/Lewis!)
LAST POTENTIAL PROMPT!: AU it! What if she didn’t make it back to the MAV in time and she made Martinez take off without her? What if both her and Mark were stranded on Mars? It totally changes the story of course, but man, I’m pretty sure that premise alone hits every button I possess haha. You could keep it in line with the tone of canon or go dark and creepy with it.
Oh wait, last AU thought for real: I love heists, sooooooooo what if the Ares 3 team turns into … A SPACE HEIST TEAM. I have no idea what they are heisting, but hey! Heists!
MECHANIQUE: A TALE OF THE CIRCUS TRESAULTI - GENEVIEVE VALENTINE
Bird (Mechanique), Stenos, Elena (Mechanique)
"It terrifies him to know her.
He sees no way out of this, until one of them has the wings. Stenos knows he's the better choice - he would make a better picture walking at the front of the parade than poor Bird with her one eye. He would know how to make the crowd love him. (He misses applause.)
Looking at Bird, though, he worries; he wonders if she would hesitate to dig the wings out of his shoulders as he slept.
Inside the wagon she has slid into her bed, has turned to face the wall.
She cuts through him just by breathing."
REQUEST: Honestly, anything. Further details of the circus days shared amongst these three, backstories for Bird and Stenos, fic set after the book ends, really messy and emotionally exhausting Bird/Stenos/Elena - ANYTHING. Details in letter.
Steampunk! Dystopian! Circus!
The setting of this book was such a wild dream, and the characters themselves were so gorgeously twisted and broken, truth be told I’d read anything and everything. But, oh, boy: Stenos and Bird. They both come to the circus and they both are vying for the wings that once belonged to the circus troupe’s own felled Icarus, Alec. Oh, and the wings are made of bones. Oh, and some of the bones belong to Elena, a caustic aerialist Stenos starts sleeping with after Elena “lets” Bird fall and shatter from the trapeze. And yup, so long as they stay close to the circus and close to Boss, the ones who swapped their bones out for metal cannot die. So, Stenos hates Bird even though he tries and fights to save her at every turn, and Elena hates everyone, and Bird (given that name after her bloody plummet to the ground) only wants to fly.
I LOVE THIS BOOK.
And I would love to read anything you might write. It can be set pre-novel and offer some insight into both Bird and Stenos and the lives they led before they came to the circus. Or, since a lot of the novel is from Little George’s POV, I’d love more about the events of the novel from Bird or Stenos’s POV (or Elena's!). Or! Post-novel! Does Bird ever come back? What becomes of Elena? I would totally would be down for exploration of some sort of twisty, dark Elena/Stenos/Bird.
A slice of life sort of fic could work awesomely here, set maybe mid-novel, after Bird has fallen but before the entire circus goes to shit that shows how the three of them go about their daily routines, but how each of them is wholly wrapped up in the other - in particular Bird and Stenos; their antagonistic symbiosis FASCINATES ME. I would really love the violent physicality of Bird and Stenos explored: the two alone and isolated as they practice and train, as they learn each other’s bodies, how in the book the two of them are always together - basically what I am saying is, I’d gobble up the fic equivalent of a TRAINING MONTAGE of these two, and if you want to get porny with it, BY ALL MEANS. I like the idea of a resentful Elena on the outside of whatever warped and weird bond Bird and Stenos share, but I also love that she is tied to both of them - Stenos because she is sleeping with him and Bird because she let her fall.
Or! If none of this speaks to you! Canon divergence!AU: Bird doesn’t leave at the end. What happens if Bird stays?
UTOPIA (TV 2013)
Milner | Letan, The Assistant (Utopia), Jessica Hyde
REQUEST: Either, Milner and The Assistant in the 1970s (or, through the ages as they try to Save The World) or just about anything about Jessica Hyde: pre-series, post-series, slice-of-life when she was living with Dugdale, the list goes on! Details in letter.
The 1970s! Milner and The Assistant and their quest to save the world! I’m deeply, deeply fascinated by the relationship between the two of them - in particular, his fierce and unending loyalty to the point of voluntary scarification of his own body to protect her. I will greedily gobble up ANYTHING you give me about the two of them. The history of them! How did they come to be a team! Write about their early MI-5 days, as spies! Missions they went on! Or go beyond that and beyond what is shown of them in the Season 2 ep - what do they do after Carvel’s disappearance? What becomes of them, how do they get to the point where we meet them again in S1, in the present-day? Or you could even do a sort of “missing scene” story from their 1970s-set episode - I’d love it.
I'd be all about backstory on Milner not shown or mentioned - I'm forever haunted by her line to Carvel, "Have you ever been in a genocide? I have." - and the same goes for The Assistant: who is he? Where did he come from?
Or,
Jessica Hyde! What was her life before we met her in the first season? Her backstory has been filled in gradually throughout the series, but I’d love more. More of the specifics of her upbringing, more of the effect being on the run her entire life has had on her, and so forth. Or! Jessica Hyde and Michael Dugdale as roommates! It could be a missing scene, slice-of-life kind of deal from when she was crashing at his place in the second season or you could go full-tilt AU and write about their adventures as the worst-matched roommates in the history of roommates and the world. It can be platonic or romantic, whichever you choose - I’m just really into their dynamic. Or, write about her and Arby/Pietre. Or post-S2! What happens to Jessica Hyde? Invent what you believe happened to her! I AM OPEN TO ALL IDEAS!
Oh, and one last potential AU: Jessica Hyde as raised by Milner and The Assistant. The best weapon against Philip Carvel is his own daughter. It’d be especially interesting to see how Jessica is raised versus Arby/Pietre. Also, I know I listed kid!fic as a DNW above, but this is the exception to the rule, namely because I think it’d be terrifyingly fascinating to see both Milner and The Assistant as faux-parental units, especially if Jessica Hyde is the child in question.
BIRDMAN (2014)
Sam Thomson, Mike Shiner
REQUEST: What becomes of Sam Thomson? Where does her life go after the events of the film? Details in letter.
Ho-boy, their chemistry in this movie honestly made the movie for me. A part of me really, really wished that the movie would have chosen to focus on her character and the weird, very natural-feeling, relationship that evolved with him. ENTER FIC!
I'd love to read fic set post-film! Or, the events of the end of the movie since both characters took a backseat to Birdman himself. Mainly, I want everything in the world about Sam. What does she do with her life after the movie ends? What was she like before the film? Does she ever see Mike again? Was he just a convenient port in the storm during the movie or is there something more at play there?
Or, I would love to read a fic set a few years after the events of the film, Sam and Mike run into each other in New York. It can be the holidays! New York at Christmas! What has become of them? What happens when they meet again?
Or, playing off that idea, do they collide at random for the rest of their lives, somehow impossibly running into one another at unexpected and unprecedentedly dramatic points of their lives? (If need be for inspiration, I can totally see a FIVE TIMES sort of fic working that way. FIVE PLAYS they ran into each other at, or something like that!).
I could also see an outsider POV working really well: a journalist writing an article about Mike or about the Thomsons/Thomson legacy via Sam. Or if you would rather focus on Mike - you could still run with the FIVE THINGS sort of fic format: five famed Mike Shiner performances, five famous actresses courted by Mike Shiner, five bad reviews, whatever strikes your fancy!
This letter is crazy long! Thank you again and I hope you have fun! I cannot wait to read what you write.
For any additional info you might want/need, my AO3 is here and my tumblr is here. HAPPY YULETIDE!
With love,
falseeeyelashes