YULETIDE 2016
Yuletide Writer!,
It's hard to believe it's that Yuletide time again, but here we are! First off, I want to thank you for writing for me! This post got crazy long and out of control, but in all honesty and all seriousness I will be thrilled to receive anything with any of these characters and these fandoms. Please consider all of the following as options and simply that. Feel free to run with your own ideas; I am sure I will love whatever it is you write.
General Likes: character-driven stories; unreliable narrators; nonlinear storytelling; dialogue (banter!); super messy and complicated relationships between characters (made all the better if they have a shared history and maybe some repressed feelings); sex as power play; power play in general; outsider POVs; infidelity; slow burn; codependency (both healthy and unhealthy); unexpected intimacy; case fic; darkfic; psychological horror, AUs (both of the canon divergence variety and of the “hey, now they’re in the outer space!” variety).
If you decide to write ship fic or porn, I prefer when sex in a story is character-driven and rooted in emotional stakes for the characters involved rather than PWP. Other things I like: sexual tension, friends to lovers, enemies to friends to lovers (or just straight-up enemies to lovers; feelings can come later, if at all); orgasm denial, workplace sex, rough sex, hate sex, drunk sex, dub-con of the hate sex/sex pollen/fuck or die/villians made us do it variety; breathplay; voyeurism/exhibitionism; sex as ill-advised coping mechanism; sex as ill-advised attempt at communication between characters.
General Dislikes/DNWs: rape or non-con; non-canonical major character deaths; A/B/O; BDSM; scat or watersports; kid!fic; character bashing.
Spoilers for the fandoms below! Especially for Season 2 of Mr. Robot and episode 3.07 of Halt and Catch Fire.
MR. ROBOT (TV)
Dominique DiPierro, Angela Moss
"Alexa, are you alone?"
"I wasn't able to understand the question I heard."
REQUEST: Feel free to focus on solely Angela or solely on Dom or go ahead and put them in a fic together (platonically or ship-wise). What if Angela had stayed working for E Corp? What's Dom's backstory with the FBI? What if you stuck both of these characters in an interrogation room post-Season Two? Details in letter.
You can either write fic with the both of them in it, or if you’d rather focus on one rather than the other, I am totally cool with that, too - treat this as an “or” rather than an “and” prompt character-wise. Basically, I want anything and everything about these two characters.
Let's start with Angela. I liked how Sam Esmail described the character of Angela as a cypher - I think that’s very true. So much of her actions can be seen from multiple angles and multiple motivations and I love that. She’s evolved so much as a character from where we first met her in the series to where Season 2 ended. For the fic, feel free to diverge from canon: what if Angela kept climbing the corporate ladder at E Corp? What if she abandoned her whistleblower mission and instead allowed herself to be seduced by the illusion of power? What does that look like? Or if you want to stay within canon, I’d totally love fic that sketches out more of the details we weren’t privy to over the one month gap unseen between Season 1 and Season 2. Or even more of the details of Angela working for E Corp - give me all the corporate intrigue! All of Angela trying to refashion herself into the cold and icy woman she tries to present herself as. One of the my favorite parts of this past season was when Angela was taken to meet Whiterose and she was interrogated by what looked like the child version of herself. Everything about the scene felt dark and wrong and surreal, a David Lynch nightmare, and I would love to read fic in either that style or that told a similar story as that episode. I’d definitely love to read a take on what happened between that episode and the finale - how did Angela get to where we left her? Her voice was so chilling and calm as she spoke to Tyrell over the phone - which, speaking of, how does she know Tyrell? What happened to her after that scene with Whiterose? I'm going to talk below about Angela/Dom, but I'd also totally and definitely read Angela/Elliot/Tyrell, too, if that was a post-Season 2 direction you wanted to run to.
And as for Dom - like I said about Angela, the same applies here: I would read anything about her. Write about her past! How she became an FBI agent! Her work at the bureau! Go full Clarice Starling, Silence of the Lambs-style, and give me some past casefic involving her. The scenes where Dom was talking to Alexa were some of my favorites from the season, and I’d be so into reading some sort of Her-like AU that’s just all the conversations Dom has with Alexa, her deepest connection with someone, something, not even human. And as I’m going to go into below, I’m all about Dom/Angela, but I’d absolutely read Dom/Darlene (the two of them in the finale, man, I'd read anything and everything). Does Darlene team up with Dom and turn on f society? And speaking of f society, oh man, I'd totally read the fic that details Dom and the team putting together Elliot's and every other character's role in the attack. Santiago mentions that they've spent months crafting this case, so seeing the story that we know but from the angle of Dom and the FBI piecing the puzzle together would be really cool. I enjoyed watching her butt heads with the rest of the FBI, especially Santiago, so if you wanted to include that angle, I'd be more than game to read that.
If you want to go the ship fic angle, I am ALL ABOUT Dom/Angela. I absolutely loved both the scene when Dom cornered Angela at her desk at E Corp and even more when she showed up at Angela’s apartment, that dark, intimidating (vaguely sexual???) vibe between the two of them as Dom both warned and threatened Angela. An interrogation scene between the two of them would be amazing. An unofficial interrogation scene that ends in sex? PLEASE. A wild game of cat and mouse that ensues between Dom and Angela following the events of Season 2, the two of them meeting up occasionally for tense conversations in public settings, maybe meeting up in less public settings for way less conversation? ABSOLUTELY. Beyond the porn potential, I also think there’s a shared thread of loneliness between both of these characters - whether it’s Angela singing karaoke in a crowded bar or Dom’s late-night chats with Alexa, they have that in common, and I would love to read that explored in some capacity.
HALT AND CATCH FIRE
Cameron Howe, Gordon Clark, Donna Clark
"But Cameron's been great for the most part ... I mean, she makes you better, right?"
"I really don't want to talk about work."
"I wasn't talking about work."
REQUEST: The messy triangle of loyalty, allegiances, and intimacy the three of them create. Focus on Cameron's time spent living with the Clarks. Or, explore what happens following episode 3.07. Details in letter.
Oh boy, Season Three has been a dream to me. Cameron was living with the Clarks! Cameron and Donna and their crazy complex temporarily destroyed partnership and friendship! Cameron and Gordon’s (now somewhat ruined) newfound trust and friendship! There’s so much to work with here! Basically what I want is a polyamorous tech mess! I want everything, from domestic hijinks while Cameron is living with the Clarks to straight-up debauched porn (of either the Cameron/Gordon/Donna variety, or Cameron/Gordon, or Donna/Cameron). I like the idea of an uneven triangle shared amongst the three of them, where each of them means something distinctly different to the other - platonically, romantically, sexually, whichever it is you wish to write. Season 3 saw these three living (increasingly less contentiously) under the same roof. Gordon and Donna’s marriage, that manages to be both struggling and intimately lived-in. Cameron and Donna navigating their partnership as their success grows only for that to be torpedoed by betrayal, distrust, and divergent ambitions. And then there’s Cameron and Gordon with their complicated history they both are able to move away from as they earn a natural intimacy. It is everything I have ever loved with these three characters! So much potential messiness! So much potential for a messy (either emotionally or literally and physically) threesome! Or, threesome dynamics playing out amidst the three different legs of the triangle and how all three of these relationships are wildly different while Cameron is living under the Clarks’ roof: Donna and Gordon relate to each other dramatically differently than Donna and Cameron do and how Cameron and Gordon do. So one idea for fic I would totally read is: what if Cameron never moved out? What if she didn't get married? (SIDENOTE: I like Tom and I like Joe, so feel free to include either or both, though I'd prefer the focus wasn't exclusively on them over any of these three characters).
As already mentioned in the general section above, infidelity is a trope I enjoy. I think the dirtybadwrong feelings coupled with guilt, shame, fear (and that’s just the cheating party not to mention the cheated-on half) can be fascinatingly played out and I can’t imagine a trio I’d want to read more about than these three in that regard lol. What if this starts as infidelity and then moves to a realm of consensual infidelity/all three of them in on in it in varying configurations lol. I'm very into the idea of Donna as voyeur, unsure what it is that she likes about watching (do they know she's watching? does she want them to know?), and I especially like how that scenario highlights how Cameron and Gordon are now so far from her. Or I could see threesome-wise, Donna directing their every move, essentially managing the encounter, maybe not even necessarily physically involved in it, but she likes telling Gordon and Cameron what to do and she likes when they obey.
I'm writing this letter as of episode 3.07, and OH MAN. This sets everything up for the perfectly angst-ridden fucked-upness that I always desire; look no further than this episode still! Donna and Cameron’s betrayed trust! Gordon warning Cameron of EXACTLY WHAT WAS GOING TO GO DOWN. That terrible cry Cameron made after the vote! THERE ARE SO MANY AWFUL FEELINGS HAPPENING HERE, so of course, I want all of that sublimated in the worst sort of sex-ways. Angry, hurt, not-quite hate-sex between Donna and Cameron? SURE. The same between Cameron and Gordon, but at a quieter pitch and a different level, a different sort of betrayal overlaid by a different sort of earned intimacy? ABSOLUTELY. All three of them in some fashion? OF COURSE. This is the long-winded way of me saying: feel free to write something that canon might ruin in the next couple episode that takes the ending of that episode into all sorts of messy places.
Instead of the threesome dynamic I (way-too-wordily) described above, I'd also absolutely be super down with Cameron/Gordon or Cameron and Gordon fic detailing their friendship/relationship. I think Mackenzie Davis, who plays Cameron, captured perfectly what it is I find so appealing about Gordon and Cameron: “I think the whole relationship is special because it’s a surprise. It’s not one that either of them actively pursued or expected. They were both just happy to be cordial with each other for the first time in their history, and then it blossoms to them both feeling alienated by Donna. It deepens with them each confiding in the other and exposing themselves to each other. It’s a seminal moment of finding out that you don’t hate this person and it’s an active exchange of privacy and trust.” So, what if their Mario marathon ended differently; take that weekend they spent alone playing video games to a darker place. I'd love reading fic that was essentially transcripts of their ham radio sessions. Or what if those radio conversations lead to an emotional affair of sorts. Or give them a physical affair. Have Gordon making some brain damage-based fucked up decisions, or maybe he thinks the bad decisions he’s making are brain-damaged based. I definitely would want Donna present in some capacity (consensual infidelity?!?! some fucked-up devil’s bargain amongst the three of them that they all think is incredibly bizarre but for whatever reason mostly works for them?) because I can't imagine these two characters without her. Or run with the plot post-3.07 and have Cameron somehow join Gordon and Joe in their new joint venture (I imagine convincing her participation alone could be half the story lol).
And the third option - Donna and Cameron or Donna/Cameron. Post-3.07 fic is what I would love. Donna on drugs and imagining Cameron there with her on the grass was one of my favorite scenes. I'd love fic that explored how their relationship could be salvaged in the wake of the IPO vote. Is forgiveness a possibility in their future? Can they ever work together again? If their partnership is irreparable in the presence, I'd love fic that jumped forward in time when maybe they meet again, poignant and sad. Beyond that, feel free to fill in any missing scenes from canon, like late nights with the two of them at Mutiny. . I love the two of these together and am not exaggerating when I say I'd read anything you'd write involving them with delight.
NOTE: Feel free to include events from future episodes for the rest of season three, since there's a couple left as of now. Also, feel free not to and to diverge from canon after 3.07, aka the time of writing this letter and these prompts. Honestly, feel free to do whatever timeline-wise, haha. I trust you, Yuletide writer!
DUBLIN MURDER SQUAD SERIES - Tana French
Antoinette Conway, Stephen Moran, Frank Mackey
Mackey thought her over. Glint in his eye, raking her, would've had me twitching. Conway didn't notice or didn't care. Just waited for him to finish up and answer her.
"Seems to me," he said, and stood up, "that you and I both need a moment to clear our heads. I'm going out for a smoke. I think you should join me."
REQUEST: A case requires all three characters to work together - perhaps undercover - and requires each to trust the other. Details in letter.
The Trespasser comes out this coming Tuesday here in the US, so it’s totally okay if you decide against using any of that canon in this - there is more than enough to work with in The Secret Place when it comes to these three for me! I loved The Secret Place, and my favorite part of it was easily when these three characters came together and played off of each other: how effortlessly Frank intimidates Stephen, how unflappable Conway is and able to read the both of them, how Stephen knows better than to trust Frank and is smart enough to fear him. I was particularly fascinated by Conway as seen through Stephen’s eyes: so flinty and harsh with these little glimmers of empathetic humanity and kinship beneath. I am so excited to read The Trespasser and read all about Conway and her role in Murder, but feel free to run with that in your own way too if you want! What I actually really like about the series in general is how French writes these characters through different lens, seen differently through her rotating stable of narrators. I think the unreliable narrator trope could play beautifully with the three of these in a Rashomon-style story where each of the three tells their own take on the same event (maybe each is interviewed by Internal Affairs? trying to hide Something Terrible that happened?), remembering things and each other in varying and conflicting ways. I think that'd be a really fun way to approach case fic.
Because, oh boy, I would absolutely love case fic. Case fic that sees the three of them forced to work together, with that weighted-down-by-the-past distrust-laden not-quite mentor/protege relationship between Frank and Stephen mutated by Conway's presence! Make them work undercover! The undercover element would play deeply into the trust necessary for the job, and the trust necessary to be someone's partner, and the trust required of each for the other, and I love that. I'm also all about all the tropes that go with case fic/undercover work: stakeouts! Beat-the-clock rescues! Hey, fake dating if it fits! Someone gets shot! All of the above!
I’d also love to see the fallout for Stephen back at the precinct with Frank after everything that went down at St. Kilda’s. And Conway! They’re partners in The Trespasser, so I’d be so into you playing with ALL OF THAT. Keep it platonic if you want, but I’d be more than down with reading any permutation of this trio, with a particular fondness for Conway/Stephen, Conway/Stephen/Frank, and Frank/Stephen.
If none of this is what you have in mind, I’d honestly love to read anything involving the three of them - their voices are all so distinct and so fun, just having the three of them shooting the shit at the holidays in a pub after hours drinking their working sorrows away would be more than fine by me.
EDIT:
I just finished reading The Trespasser and oh boy, MILD SPOILERS HEREIN,
[Spoiler (click to open)]but if you wanted to run with the fact that Conway worked an undercover case? And fold Frank into that and her current partner Stephen and write undercover fic? This is me encouraging that a second go-round. Addiitonally, if you wanted to spin-out that scene when she calls Stephen to come by her house because she knows someone has been casing her place? And you wanted that scene to end a little differently (does he stay? what happens if he stays? what happens if they keep drinking? what happens when they realize seated there on her couch that it's the two of them against if not the world than the Murder squad?) I'd be ALL FOR THAT. I'd also be all in for any and all fallout from the end of the book: is there any blowback on Conway and Stephen? Does their partnership/relationship change following everything they went through, and if so, how? This book was SO GOOD, and it only made me that much hungrier for more about these characters!
THE DIVINERS SERIES - Libba Bray
Evangeline "Evie" O'Neill, Sam Lloyd
Sam stole a glance at the flappers watching them. They were cute, and probably one of them might jumpt to date him. So why was he entering into a devil's bargain with Evie? Why did the prospect of a fake romance with her give him the same thrill as thievery?
REQUEST: All the tropes! The fake dating plot between Sam and Evie was so much fun in the book, I'd love to see that expanded and basically the entire kitchen sink of tropes thrown in with them. Details in letter.
I love Evie so much! I love the voice that Bray gives her and I absolutely love how off the rails party girl wild and drunk she goes in the second book. I’d read all about her bonkers partying in the 20s, while in denial of all the nightmarish shit she’s been through. As for her and Sam, go nuts with the tropes! Fake dating! Flesh out all their fake dating and string it out even longer than it occurred in canon! That is a trope I will always want more of. Give them more investigative adventures while fake dating in the public eye, and I will gobble that up. Or, what if they got married? Would they be able to go through with that farce just so Evie could maintain her fame (and so Sam could achieve fame of his own?)
Trope-wise, go ahead and play around! Enemies to friends to lovers is a stalwart fave of mine, fake dating, any sort of forced intimacy/huddling for warmth/etc, loyalty kink (hey! what if they get captured by those shady dudes that have been following them and have his mother held in captivity!) (oh hey! what if you drop these two in a similar captivity cabin situation! WHAT DO THEY DO). Or get extra wild with the tropes: time travel! some sort of groundhog day/time loop thing related to the diviners! Get into the terrifying dreams she’s having! Maybe she eventually confides in Sam about it. Or play around with their diviner powers! Go into some Project Buffalo business! I think the equivalent of casefic for them, 1920s paranormal-style, could be really cool if that's something you'd want to do.
Or go super dark with it! What if all these vision come to fruition and the end of days do arrive? What do they do? I’d be more than cool with 1920s post-apocalyptic fic. I’ll be honest, the setting is so much of what I love about these books that I’d prefer you not go the AU route (feel free to diverge from canon if you want and alter some of the plot points of the series; all I ask is you keep the setting. That is, unless you decide you want to write a time travel plot, then BY ALL MEANS, do you).
Ship-wise, I am clearly very into Sam/Evie, haha. Most of these prompts read pretty shippy, but even if you wrote the two of these platonic but a close intimacy and understanding develops between them as they work together, I would love that too. I’m not particularly into Jericho/Evie, but I would be into Sam/Evie/Jericho if that was something you wanted to write. I think that would be fascinating to watch unfold, especially considering how annoyed both Sam and Jericho get with each other.
I am so excited to read whatever it is you wind up writing for me. Thank you again and HAVE FUN!
For any other additional information you might want or need, my AO3 is here and my tumblr is here.
With love,
falseeeyelashes