Yuletide cheer
Dearest author, so glad that you are here, and so glad you're writing fic for me!
Things that I love, cherish, and just want to hug to my chest:
I will always love a good found family and the choices that go into creating them. I love characters exploring how they relate to one another and how to trust each other even when trust seems impossible-- this is probably why spy fiction has been something I've enjoyed forever. I especially love if these people negotiating trust can do that while being inconvenienced with adventures and adversaries who are out to capture or kill them and were perhaps prepared for people who fight back, but maybe not for people who barely pause bickering with each other in order to do so. And while I love me some good angst, I also delight in the value of choosing happiness and joy as a form of courage and standing against the darkness; characters who choose to be kind because they know it is stronger in the end and who celebrate the good in a world that often lacks it have my heart in their hands.
I'm absolutely a trope-happy reader, and never can get enough of some things- bedsharing, a fake relationship becoming real (OR BETTER YET, fake enemies who are secretly in a relationship but have to con everyone into thinking they're trying to kill each other!); historical AUs, femslash and women who love women, ladies having friendships with each other that are just as valid as any romantic relationship (or friendships that are also romantic relationships!), casefic, and people just generally being sappy stupid in love with each other.
DNWs: outright non-con/dub-con, infidelity outside of a negotiated and well-communicated open or polyamorous relationship (obv like, The Americans, Philip and Elizabeth are a-ok on an open relationship, other couples wouldn't be!), a lot of angst in general but particularly for detailed descriptions of rape or sexual assault, animal death (real fuckin' serious about this one, no mentions please and thank you!), or non-canon major character death. I'm pretty hard to squick on bodily functions, given the shitshows I've seen, but I think we can keep the body horror to a minimum. I'm not real jazzed about pregnancy-centric stories, although if you are mentioning something either in-canon or that makes sense in the narrative, a passing glance is okay. It shouldn't be a problem, but like, no A/B/O stuff, no... oh, idk, I can think of roughly eight hundred kinks I'm not into, spy stuff can lend itself well to some fun bondage but if that's what you're dying to do, keep it out of humiliation or degradation zones, keep it consensual, nobody needs to get really into inflicting or receiving pain, and at this point I'm just putting together an a la carte menu. If you have questions, leave an anon comment, either here or I might get it on my tumblr if I get on there (same username).
Specific fandom requests:
THE AMERICANS (characters: Paige Jennings, Philip Jennings)
I picked these two characters because I wanted to make sure if I matched on it, we were on the same page, or at least in a similar book. It’s not that I necessarily want to exclude anyone else (and certainly feel free to liberally include them), but this show has so many moments of close shots of the tension of connections in a hard job and a messy world. Elizabeth and Philip each picked a child to follow in their footsteps, even though that's not at all how life works. One of the scenes that fascinated and moved me the most in the final season was when Philip shows up at Paige’s apartment and they talk before sparring. I don’t know that Philip meant for that to happen, or meant for anything at all, but we’ve seen how deep his heart is and how much he loves his children, and how much it hurts to see such rose-colored patriotic glasses on his daughter, who is so young and vulnerable in the way he once was. The harsh truths department has usually been Elizabeth’s territory, but it can’t be here, and this is a new side that Paige saw. A side that probably would have told her terrible but necessary things if there had been more visits like that one (and oh, author, if you cared to write those, you’d save me from having to try myself). It was a beautifully directed scene that highlighted each hold Philip had on his daughter, and how each one had been something he’d used to kill a person with- turning what was violent into something simultaneously caring and (comparatively) gentle and warning. I’m not saying that all I want is a repeat of that scene; it just really reached for me, in the dynamic it showed, and if you were moved to explore similar spaces, I’m here for it. If you felt like writing casefic, it’d be a lot of disastrous fun to write Philip and Paige on a mission after Elizabeth was burned and no one else was available for something considered to be low stakes- it’d be equal parts shitshow and absolute competence, for sure. (Plus father-daughter stakeouts? Attempts at “how’s that internship application coming along” normality while collecting some blackmail material? ARE YOU K I D D I N G ME LIKE ДА ПОЖАЛУЙСТА.)
Here are some links to the internship programs at the State Dept (including which office she might be choosing to work at) or at CIA (probably within what I believe would have then been the Directorate of Intelligence and has now been reorganized into the Directorate of Analysis and Directorate of Operations) that Paige would have been applying to (or even considering the Presidential Management Fellowship program if she decided to go to graduate school); doubtless they’ve changed a little in the past thirty years, but since I’m pretty sure they’re bringing on more Russia experts now after the attrition rate of letting that go in the 90s/2000s, so things might actually be similar in some regards in a way they wouldn’t have been fifteen years ago.
THE CONJURING (Ed, Lorraine)
I love Ed and Lorraine’s relationship and how it’s portrayed in the movies, and also how they relate to other people with such compassion and a true desire to help in any way they can- maybe it’s not supernatural help they can provide sometimes, but rather a simple bit of repair work on a car or some plumbing, or bring music back into a house. Only the shallowest and showiest bits of their faith are really displayed, but deeper glimpses come through in how Ed and Lorraine believe they were meant to be together, and in other ways. The symbols of faith, in crosses and bibles, are more like tools and weapons, but the silent part of their faith that sustains their strength and their faith in each other is very touching. Areas I think there might be room for fic exploration are things like how they seem to have cultivated a peaceful home life in contrast to their work, with the exception of that room full of possessed objects-- how do they justify keeping such things in their house, near their young daughter? Or maybe what are some of the smaller hauntings they've dealt with been like, and how have they found a way to bring light and love into them whether or not they're big life-and-death screaming horrors?
Q.U.E.E.N. Music Video (Janelle Monáe, Time Council Representative, Girl in Ying Yang Shirt, Girl in Black Shirt)
Mainly? I am so damn into the entire Janelle Monáe mythology created in this video, in her other albums, and in Dirty Computer, and any stories you want to write me within that world will be fascinating. I picked this one small sample just because the idea of a prison for time travelers being a museum of people in stasis, as some kind of fucked up anthropology exhibit, and the way a prison break looks when you have offenders joyfully busting their way out of a museum.
Things that I love, cherish, and just want to hug to my chest:
I will always love a good found family and the choices that go into creating them. I love characters exploring how they relate to one another and how to trust each other even when trust seems impossible-- this is probably why spy fiction has been something I've enjoyed forever. I especially love if these people negotiating trust can do that while being inconvenienced with adventures and adversaries who are out to capture or kill them and were perhaps prepared for people who fight back, but maybe not for people who barely pause bickering with each other in order to do so. And while I love me some good angst, I also delight in the value of choosing happiness and joy as a form of courage and standing against the darkness; characters who choose to be kind because they know it is stronger in the end and who celebrate the good in a world that often lacks it have my heart in their hands.
I'm absolutely a trope-happy reader, and never can get enough of some things- bedsharing, a fake relationship becoming real (OR BETTER YET, fake enemies who are secretly in a relationship but have to con everyone into thinking they're trying to kill each other!); historical AUs, femslash and women who love women, ladies having friendships with each other that are just as valid as any romantic relationship (or friendships that are also romantic relationships!), casefic, and people just generally being sappy stupid in love with each other.
DNWs: outright non-con/dub-con, infidelity outside of a negotiated and well-communicated open or polyamorous relationship (obv like, The Americans, Philip and Elizabeth are a-ok on an open relationship, other couples wouldn't be!), a lot of angst in general but particularly for detailed descriptions of rape or sexual assault, animal death (real fuckin' serious about this one, no mentions please and thank you!), or non-canon major character death. I'm pretty hard to squick on bodily functions, given the shitshows I've seen, but I think we can keep the body horror to a minimum. I'm not real jazzed about pregnancy-centric stories, although if you are mentioning something either in-canon or that makes sense in the narrative, a passing glance is okay. It shouldn't be a problem, but like, no A/B/O stuff, no... oh, idk, I can think of roughly eight hundred kinks I'm not into, spy stuff can lend itself well to some fun bondage but if that's what you're dying to do, keep it out of humiliation or degradation zones, keep it consensual, nobody needs to get really into inflicting or receiving pain, and at this point I'm just putting together an a la carte menu. If you have questions, leave an anon comment, either here or I might get it on my tumblr if I get on there (same username).
Specific fandom requests:
THE AMERICANS (characters: Paige Jennings, Philip Jennings)
I picked these two characters because I wanted to make sure if I matched on it, we were on the same page, or at least in a similar book. It’s not that I necessarily want to exclude anyone else (and certainly feel free to liberally include them), but this show has so many moments of close shots of the tension of connections in a hard job and a messy world. Elizabeth and Philip each picked a child to follow in their footsteps, even though that's not at all how life works. One of the scenes that fascinated and moved me the most in the final season was when Philip shows up at Paige’s apartment and they talk before sparring. I don’t know that Philip meant for that to happen, or meant for anything at all, but we’ve seen how deep his heart is and how much he loves his children, and how much it hurts to see such rose-colored patriotic glasses on his daughter, who is so young and vulnerable in the way he once was. The harsh truths department has usually been Elizabeth’s territory, but it can’t be here, and this is a new side that Paige saw. A side that probably would have told her terrible but necessary things if there had been more visits like that one (and oh, author, if you cared to write those, you’d save me from having to try myself). It was a beautifully directed scene that highlighted each hold Philip had on his daughter, and how each one had been something he’d used to kill a person with- turning what was violent into something simultaneously caring and (comparatively) gentle and warning. I’m not saying that all I want is a repeat of that scene; it just really reached for me, in the dynamic it showed, and if you were moved to explore similar spaces, I’m here for it. If you felt like writing casefic, it’d be a lot of disastrous fun to write Philip and Paige on a mission after Elizabeth was burned and no one else was available for something considered to be low stakes- it’d be equal parts shitshow and absolute competence, for sure. (Plus father-daughter stakeouts? Attempts at “how’s that internship application coming along” normality while collecting some blackmail material? ARE YOU K I D D I N G ME LIKE ДА ПОЖАЛУЙСТА.)
Here are some links to the internship programs at the State Dept (including which office she might be choosing to work at) or at CIA (probably within what I believe would have then been the Directorate of Intelligence and has now been reorganized into the Directorate of Analysis and Directorate of Operations) that Paige would have been applying to (or even considering the Presidential Management Fellowship program if she decided to go to graduate school); doubtless they’ve changed a little in the past thirty years, but since I’m pretty sure they’re bringing on more Russia experts now after the attrition rate of letting that go in the 90s/2000s, so things might actually be similar in some regards in a way they wouldn’t have been fifteen years ago.
THE CONJURING (Ed, Lorraine)
I love Ed and Lorraine’s relationship and how it’s portrayed in the movies, and also how they relate to other people with such compassion and a true desire to help in any way they can- maybe it’s not supernatural help they can provide sometimes, but rather a simple bit of repair work on a car or some plumbing, or bring music back into a house. Only the shallowest and showiest bits of their faith are really displayed, but deeper glimpses come through in how Ed and Lorraine believe they were meant to be together, and in other ways. The symbols of faith, in crosses and bibles, are more like tools and weapons, but the silent part of their faith that sustains their strength and their faith in each other is very touching. Areas I think there might be room for fic exploration are things like how they seem to have cultivated a peaceful home life in contrast to their work, with the exception of that room full of possessed objects-- how do they justify keeping such things in their house, near their young daughter? Or maybe what are some of the smaller hauntings they've dealt with been like, and how have they found a way to bring light and love into them whether or not they're big life-and-death screaming horrors?
Q.U.E.E.N. Music Video (Janelle Monáe, Time Council Representative, Girl in Ying Yang Shirt, Girl in Black Shirt)
Mainly? I am so damn into the entire Janelle Monáe mythology created in this video, in her other albums, and in Dirty Computer, and any stories you want to write me within that world will be fascinating. I picked this one small sample just because the idea of a prison for time travelers being a museum of people in stasis, as some kind of fucked up anthropology exhibit, and the way a prison break looks when you have offenders joyfully busting their way out of a museum.