YULETIDE 2017
Dear Yuletide Writer!,
I say it every year, but I can't believe it's that time again! I want to thank you for writing for me this year and I want you to know: everything in this (lengthy and unwieldy) post is merely a suggestion. I am thrilled to read anything you write for me with these characters and these fandoms.
As a blanket FYI, I ship all the below characters in some (overly explained) capacity or another, but I am absolutely fine with gen fic if that's what you prefer to write.
GENERAL LIKES: unreliable narrators; nonlinear story-telling; moral complexity and/or ambiguity; backstory; missing scenes; outsider POV; blurring the lines between professional and personal relationships; epistolary fic; power-play; codependency (both healthy and unhealthy); loyalty; unexpected intimacy and physical intimacy; case fic; dark fic; super messy, complicated, and difficult to categorize relationships between characters (made all the better if/when they share a history and maybe probably repressed feelings); repression, generally; sexual tension; slow burn; infidelity; hurt/comfort; fake dating; AUs, both of the canon divergence variety and the whole new setting variety (though I am not the hugest fan of mundane AUs, i.e., coffeehouse AUs, high school/university AUs, etc.).
As I already mentioned, I totally invite ship fic or porn if you wish to write it. I do prefer when sex in a story is character-driven and rooted in emotional stakes for the characters involved rather than straight-up PWP. Which brings us to KINKS: friends to lovers; enemies to lovers; first time; workplace sex; rough sex; hate sex; drunk sex; dub-con of the sex pollen/fuck or die/villains made us do it variety (a caveat: this is me saying feel free to throw everything else in this post out and just write this trope if you feel so moved - it's an all-time favorite of mine); biting; breathplay; choking; orgasm denial; frottage; dirty talk; comeplay; voyeurism/exhibitionism; under-negotiated kink; threesomes (especially this year; four out of the five fandoms below definitely apply here!); sex as ill-advised coping mechanism; sex as ill-advised attempt at communication between characters.
And last, GENERAL DISLIKES/DNWs: rape or non-con; A/B/O or omegaverse; scat or watersports; formal BDSM; issue fic; kid!fic (unless the characters canonically have children); and character bashing.
Spoilers apply for all the fandoms below, but in particular for Free Fire and the first season of Ozark.
FREE FIRE (2016)
Justine (Free Fire); Chris (Free Fire); Ord (Free Fire)
REQUEST: Fix-it fic, where everyone (or at least these three characters) lives to continue life as violent, vengeful fugitives. Details in letter.
This movie was an absolute blast. I loved the vibe of these three characters and how each played off the other in their own way: Ord's nonchalant pot-smoking irreverence and smack talk in the face of danger; Chris's cool-headed attempt at chivalry and keeping shit under control; and Justine masterminding the entire disaster while hiding her involvement behind long-suffering sighs and well-earned eyerolls. This is me saying, I want more.
I'm basically into any sort of fix-it fic that allows the three of them to limp away from that warehouse bloodbath (hey, what is Ord's John Denver story anyway?) in some capacity for whatever future you deign to give them. One possibility could be the AU where Justine misses (both) her shot(s), and Ord and Chris, though wounded, live. And get arrested. Cue their eventual jailbreak and their prickly, begrudging partnership as they decide to seek out a disappeared and briefcase-toting Justine. And revenge turns out to be a threesome, or you know, whatever. Or, another alternative "everybody lives!" story could be one where the three of them hit the road together as fugitives, running south to the border with the cash and the guns. Or, I'd totally love to read the fix-it fic where Justine and Chris get to go on that dinner date after all!
In addition to those options, I'd also love any and all backstory you might want to write for these characters - Justine, particularly. How did Justine and Ord come to know each other and to work together? How did Justine meet Chris and get in with the Irish? How did Justine wind up in this line of work at all? If you wanted to write a whole big crime backstory for Justine, I'd be all in. Or, if you wanted to write a canon divergent AU that isn't fix-it fic: what if these three had met before the events of the film? What if all three of them were in on Justine's plan?
Last, the set-up of the movie lends itself well to just about any and all AUs and fusions if you ask me. A western shoot-'em up? A western shoot-'em up that's really Westworld? A The Man From U.N.C.L.E. pastiche? Space bandits? Actual 1970s monster hunters that's essentially Scooby Doo gone grimdark? YES, to all of the above, and anything else you might imagine. I guarantee I'd love it.
I am into pretty much any combination of the pairings possible here, with a real soft-spot for Justine/Chris/Ord and Justine/Chris, though I would not say no to Ord/Chris - so long as Justine still played a role - or Justine/Ord.
And, finally, an additional kink not listed in the general section above: gun kink. If ever a canon was made for gun kink, this is the canon. If that's your thing, go ahead and TAKE YOUR SHOT /real bad gun puns.
HALT AND CATCH FIRE
Cameron Howe; Gordon Clark
REQUEST: Cameron and Gordon's changing relationship charted over the years. Details in letter.
This quote from Mackenzie Davis (who plays Cameron) last season about the change in Cameron and Gordon's relationship basically sums up everything I find so interesting about these two and the element I'd love to see explored more fic-wise: "... 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." What I am mainly interested in here is the evolution of Cameron and Gordon's relationship over the years, and how they have become even closer in Season 4.
I am cool with everything from friendship fic to full-on (emotionally fraught and complicated, but that's kinda a given with these two) porn. I am incredibly fascinated by how Cameron and Gordon have grown together and how they play off each other, and how this genuine mutually caring relationship has emerged between them over the course of the series. If there's ever a type of pairing or relationship I love explored fic-wise, ship-wise (porn-wise) it's their dynamic: heated antipathy giving way to genuine, if complicated, respect, understanding and affection that's never outright stated but rather evidenced through action. These are two people who have come to know each other in a way that is unique to how they relate to everyone else in their lives. These are also two people who are well-known for their destructive tendencies, whether via self-immolation, like Cameron, or inadvertent self-sabotage, like Gordon. This is the long-winded way of me saying, I would love to read the fic where the two of them unintentionally take a hammer to this relationship built over the years and then come out the other side, either for the better or the worse.
Another possible prompt, that could be written platonically or as ship fic, would be to chart their evolving relationship over the course of all the video games they have played together. The scenes of the two of them playing and trash-talking are some of my favorite from the series, and I am always here for more of that. Feel free to write even just an individual scene of them hanging out and I guarantee I will love it. Or, communication has served as a big theme of the show, but I have particularly liked how that theme has been explored with Cameron and Gordon - such as their connection via ham radio in Season 3, and how it was through that method of communication that Cameron finally told someone she had gotten married. Exploring the changing methods of long-distance communication between these two characters who never had any intention of ever connecting would make for an awesome fic (and is a great opportunity for epistolary fic, should you wish to write that). And I am definitely curious about the time skipped between seasons 3 and 4 (or the time skipped at any point in the narrative; this show loves its time jumps!) and how the two of them might have communicated long-distance during that period of time Cameron was in Japan.
AU-wise, I'd love to read the AU where in Season 3 Cameron never moved out of the Clarks' house (and, I guess, never got married). The what-if narrative that spirals out from that intrigues me: the ongoing and deepening conflict with Donna over Mutiny contrasted with the ongoing and deepening connection with Gordon. Another canon divergent AU possibility I'd love to read is what if in Season 4 Cameron kept crashing at Gordon's place, as she did after his fortieth birthday party. And, last, if you're feeling in the mood for writing both AU and historical fiction, feel free to plop these characters down in the age of telegraph or the early days of the telephone or whatever Ye Olde Communication Tools era you wish, becuase that sounds super fun to me (conversely, feel free to send them to the future instead and do as you wish!).
As a side note, both Donna and Joe play such integral parts in these characters' lives and in the relationship between Cameron and Gordon, so I am all for including them in the story if you wish. And ship fic-wise, other than Cameron/Gordon, I'd also be very into Cameron/Gordon/Donna or Cameron/Gordon/Joe, if you wanted to go that route. I'm also fine if you want to include Katie or Tom in whatever capacity - I leave that up to you!
And as a final note, as of writing this letter, there are still some episodes left in the final season. Feel free to diverge from the remaining canon if inspiration strikes before the series ends.
EDIT post-4x07:
[Spoiler (click to open)]WELL, FIGURES, HUH? So when I wrote "feel free to diverge from remaining canon" in this letter earlier today, I didn't think I'd essentially be saying: FEEL FREE TO WRITE FIX-IT FIC. If you want to include Gordon's death in your fic, I trust you, writer! (as a coda, or as a multi-timeline sort of OTHER POTENTIAL OUTCOMES story exploring alternate lives they could've led, or a time loop AU, or ghost!Gordon lol), but I'd prefer his death not be the focus of the fic or for it to be grief!fic. I'm all for darker fic, but this is just too sad for me! I'm in mourning!
OZARK (TV)
Ruth Langmore; Martin "Marty" Byrde
REQUEST: Any and everything Ruth: her complicated loyalty to Marty and what that means for her future; her backstory; or, how she arrived at her decision to save Marty at the expense of her own family. Details in letter.
From "Why do I have this feeling we both know you'd be better off dead?" to "I couldn't have them kill you." Well, damn. This is my jam.
In general, I would really love for the story to be Ruth-focused. I like Marty a lot, but I am particularly interested in how he relates to Ruth and the function he plays in her life, and she in his. That said, there's something hugely performative about Marty I'd love to see explored fic-wise: he's always wearing that mask that hides everything and anything human about him. He's the guy furiously working his legs to tread water while maintaining an air of complete control above the surface. He spends the entire season scrambling, and even when he is fucked and in too deep (which is basically all the time), there's a cold level of detachment to him. Which makes me curious: what does he actually care about? Is everything he does just part of his play for manipulation and control and to stay alive? What does he actually feel for Ruth? Does he care?
Because Ruth cares. I am so fascinated by Ruth and that complicated loyalty she has for Marty. There's potential for a great cat and mouse game here where they both have the ability to destroy the other (at their own possible peril: Ruth knows about Marty's "business" and Marty has not only made Ruth an accomplice but he knows she killed her uncles). They're that close to mutually-assured destruction, and I love it. If you want to go dark with the fic, I'd love if you explored that: two people, working together, but could just as easily work against each other.
As I said before, I love Ruth SO MUCH. She was easily my favorite part of the series. I will happily read anything you want to write about her. In addition to what I've said above, I'd totally read Ruth backstory. The first season left me wanting to know everything about her. World-weary and crafty Ruth, her father in prison leaving her to run the family, butting heads with her uncles, too smart for any of them and maybe for her own good. Feel free to fill in any of the gaps of her backstory. Or, I'd love to read about her future. What happens after that first season? How does she deal with all the conflicts that have brightly emerged in her life: her father in prison and the consequences for not doing what he wanted her to do on the outside; her cousins and the guilt she feels; and Marty. Or provide some missing scenes fic from the first season. I'd love to see more of Ruth reaching the conclusion that even though she started the season scheming and plotting to jack Marty's cash (at his fatal expense), she decided she cared more about keeping Marty alive. That's a bulletproof narrative kink for me right there and I would love to get a deeper glimpse inside her head as to how she arrived at this point. In addition to that, if you wanted to extend the scene where Ruth confessed to Marty why she killed her uncles, I would gobble that right up.
Another possible prompt: MORE HEISTS! I loved the episode when Marty and Ruth worked together to pull off a heist of the strip club that she winds up running. If you wanted to write about Ruth and Marty tearing a blue streak through the Ozarks, ripping off strip club after strip club, I am right there with you. Or maybe their heists graduate in scope and take and they start getting ballsy with who they rip off, and a Midwest May-December Bonnie and Clyde duo is born. Or, hell, if you wanted to write a Breaking Bad fusion where Ruth is the Jesse Pinkman to Marty's Walter White meth cook, I'M IN.
Or, if you wanted to just write 1000 words or more of Ruth smarting off to Marty in her strip club office, I am all for it, too.
Last, I am cool with fic that preserves their relationship as depicted in canon, but I'd also be totally down for the dirtybadwrong avenue should you care to travel that. Julia Garner, who plays Ruth, had this to say about Ruth and Marty: "She definitely has daddy issues. I think that's why she is drawn towards Marty." DO WITH THAT WHAT YOU MAY, DEAR WRITER.
PEAKY BLINDERS (TV)
Lizzie Stark; Tommy Shelby
REQUEST: Everything about Lizzie Stark (and her relationship to Tommy): pre-series, post-Season 3, missing scenes, you name it. Details in letter.
Lizzie Stark! Honestly, I want anything and everything about her. I loved her when she was introduced in the first season and then loved her even more when she showed up at the start of Season 2 and wound up employed as Tommy's secretary. Her relationship, for lack of a better term, with Tommy is the ultimate in unhealthy and toxic, which is probably why I'm fascinated by it. I'd love to see more of that explored, and if you're willing, I'd be more than happy to receive dark!fic for this fandom and these characters (though that's certainly not required).
A quick sidebar regarding these characters and this fandom: I know I listed rape and non-con as DNWs above, but the topic is slightly unavoidable when it comes to Lizzie Stark, both because of her background as a prostitute and because she was raped at the end of Season 2. If you choose to write backstory about Lizzie, I am totally fine with you including her work as a prostitute (especially since canonically that sounds like how she met the Shelby brothers). I am also fine with you including reference to her rape - it definitely colors and, in my opinion, fuels the toxicity between Lizzie and Tommy - but I'd prefer that not be the focus of the fic you write.
As for prompts, I would absolutely love to read pre-series fic about Lizzie and how she came to know the Shelby brothers and her initial arrangement with Tommy. What was the first time he came to her like? Or, if you wanted to write something less heavy and more fun, I'd love to read about those early days when Lizzie worked as Tommy's secretary, her serving as His Girl Friday (until it all went to hell at the end of the season). What few glimpses we got of them working together during that season were great, and I'd absolutely love to see more of that. I also love her relationship with Polly, and if you wanted to write about the both of them (championing women's rights!) I am here for that. Or, if you wanted to look to the future, I'd love fic that extrapolated on the events of the end of Season 3. You could write about the immediate future, or further down the line. I love the idea of Lizzie rising up in the crime world and ascending the ranks of the Blinders.
And, of course, as mentioned earlier: Lizzie/Tommy. There's so much to unpack when it comes to this pairing, and I'd love to see what you could do with it if you're willing to write it! It's such a one-sided relationship where Tommy takes and takes and takes, and as the Season 3 finale showed, the only thing he thinks he has to give in return is money: "Lizzie, I want it known that money was for you because some nights it was you who stopped my heart from breaking. No one else." That's so fucked up! Tell me all about those nights! Tell me everything! What Lizzie feels in this moments, what she wants, her willingness to let Tommy take from her what he needs but her refusal to take his money. Money plays an obvious role between them and fuels a power dynamic I'd love to see you flip on its head. If you wanted to write porn, using sex as an escalating power-play between them would be so fascinating to me, changing the script from something transactional to something assertive on Lizzie's part.
I'm not particularly interested in Tommy/Grace (or any of Tommy's canonical love interests), but I can totally see how it's canonically unavoidable and would give short shrift to his character not to include it (his grief, especially). I'm fine with you including Tommy/Grace, but I would prefer that Lizzie be the focus of the story (and Tommy/Lizzie should you elect to go the ship fic route). I would also be more than cool if you wanted to go the extra messy mile and wrote Tommy/Lizzie/John. Because, man, I live for Lizzie first snarling at Tommy that he's ten times less the man than John is, and then later, after her awful experience at the track (courtesy of Tommy), when she mournfully tells John to get out, that he's not like Tommy. Play with all of that if you wish, because I would love to read it.
And last, I have no idea (no one does?) when the fourth season is slated to air. Should it start some time this fall as apparently planned, feel free to include anything from it if you wish, but I don't expect it! (Though here's the trailer for the new season, if you want to get as stoked as I am right now).
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: Case fic that builds off the events of The Trespasser that requires Conway, Stephen, and Mackey to work together. Details in letter.
I think this has become my perennial request. My kingdom for more of the emotionally fraught and complex tightrope walk that was the three of them sharing an interrogation room (or, you know, the art classroom at Mackey's daughter's school).
I am totally cutting and pasting some of the stuff I wrote in last year's letter, but my favorite part of The Secret Place was easily when these three characters came together and played off each other: how effortlessly Mackey intimidated Stephen, how unflappable Conway was and able to read the both of them, and how Stephen knew better than to trust Mackey and was 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. Conversely, I also loved Stephen as illustrated by Conway in The Trespasser, and then, how the pressures of Murder and her fellow coworkers were enough to make her question Stephen's loyalties (to her!!!). I loved it. I want more of it. And adding Frank Mackey in to the mix again would only make it that much better.
What I really like about the series in general is how French writes these characters through different lens, each viewed differently by her rotating stable of narrators. I think the unreliable narrator trope could play beautifully with these characters in a Rashomon-style story where each of the three tells their own take on the same event (maybe each is being interviewed by Internal Affairs? trying to hide Something Terrible that happened?), remembering things and each other in varying and conflicting ways. I think that would be a really fun way to approach case fic.
This is me segueing to say: I would love case fic for this fandom. Case fic that sees the three of them forced to work together, each interaction weighed down by a shared history that makes the trio of them unbalanced, stained by mutual distrust, and how Conway's presence influences how Stephen and Mackey relate to each other and how Mackey's presence influences Conway and Stephen.
And piggybacking off my love of case fic, I also loved that we learned in The Trespasser that Conway had worked undercover before. I would love to read fic that explored the fall-out from the events of The Trespasser that for whatever arbitrary or plot-based reason results in Conway and Stephen have to go undercover - with Mackey running the op. 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 totally all about all the tropes that go along with case fic (or undercover case fic): stakeouts! Beat the clock scenarios! Fake dating! All the tropes!
Generally speaking though, I would love to read fic of any kind that deals with the aftermath of The Trespasser. Is there any blowback on Conway and/or Stephen? Does their partnership/relationship change after everything they went through together? What sort of wrench would Mackey throw in that partnership if he was forced to work with them in whatever capacity? I'm cool if you want to write these relationships platonically, but I also am totally down for ship fic with these characters in whatever combination you want: Conway/Stephen, Stephen/Mackey, Conway/Stephen/Mackey - I love it all and want it all!
This letter is a thousand years long, but I guess I'm just that passionate and excited about all of these characters and fandoms lol. I am so excited to read whatever it is you write for me, and I hope you enjoy and have fun!
I can be found elsewhere as arbitrarily over on AO3 and widespindriftgaze on tumblr.
THANK YOU AGAIN and with much love,
falseeeyelashes