Yuletide 2018: Dear Author
Things I Love
Gen. Strong friendship. Found family. Romance. Bechdel-passing. Feminism. Inclusivity of genders and sexualities. Femslash. Smart people getting to show their intelligence; competent people getting to do what they're best at. Stories that replicate the tone and style of the original. Stories about people making discoveries about themselves: discovering their inner strength, discovering that they're in love, discovering the strength of their friendship. Plot. Well-researched history. Snappy dialogue. Casefic. (if you write me casefic, I will be your friend forever!)
And, most of all, I love crossovers! If you find inspiration for one of these, it would be an amazing Yuletide present! It can be a crossover between two of the fandoms I've requested, or with an outside one. For outside ones, Harry Potter and Doctor Who are the ones I’d love most.
So, Endeavour investigates magical mishaps caused by some Hogwarts students on break; or discovers that another police officer is a wizard. (Is that why De Bryn is so cranky - because he's tired of having to hide that he's a wizard?) The Ministerio del Tiempo team goes to 1830s Mexico or Cuba and crosses over with Benjamin January and Co.; or they have some mission in Oxford in the 1960s that brings them into contact with Endeavour Morse. (Irene’s from the 1960s: did they give her some missions close to home?) One of the Doctor’s companions goes to Dr. Bright for therapy; or Samantha Barnes time-travels to the Parrington Museum. Or, whatever inspiration strikes you!
Absolute Do Not Want
Explicit sex or violence. Rape, non-con, dubcon. Incest. Humiliation. (Seriously, I can't even watch The Office because humiliation makes me cringe so hard.) Sexual relationships between adults and teens. Violence against children, child abuse, or other children-in-peril. Physical or psychological torture. Misogyny, homophobia, and other bigotry. And please, no 'they act like they hate each other but that's actually because they're in love,' unless that's already been established in canon. I want "no" to mean "no."
Would Rather Not Have
The Five Things structure. Angst. Death. Plotless character studies. AUs. Non-canonical pairings that I haven't specified in my request.
Benjamin January Mysteries. Rose Vitrac January, Dominique Vieillard, Hannibal Sefton, Benjamin January
I'm happy with a story about any or all of these characters, at any point during the series.
What I love about this series: The New Orleans setting: its social complexity, racial diversity, music, history. The emotional authenticity of everyone's strengths and weaknesses. The way it respects the characters' pasts. The complications of friendship and family. The way each mystery is so deeply embedded in the fabric of its society.
I also respect how the series doesn't look away from the legacy of slavery, racism, and trauma, both in the characters' lives and in the wider world. I absolutely understand that some of those elements need to be in this story if it's going to do justice to the original and the historical reality. However, I would strongly prefer a story that is not primarily about racism, slavery, or trauma.
About the characters specifically: I love Dominique's emotional intelligence, unabashed femininity, perceptiveness, and skillful navigation of New Orleans' racial divisions and her own place within them. I love Rose's intellect, gentleness, pragmatism, and the little flashes of daring and bravery that are getting more frequent as time goes on. (The cross-dressing is especially excellent.) I love Hannibal's loyalty, haplessness, accidental charisma, stealth competence, and fast-talking.
My first choice is a story in which Rose and Dominique team up to solve a case. Maybe it's while Benjamin is away; maybe it's a case that he can't investigate on his own: just as he takes on cases that other people can't (or won't) investigate, maybe Rose and Dominique have taken on one that Benjamin can't or won't. How do Rose and Dominique work together? What are their detective methods like? How do they rescue Hannibal (because you know he'll need to be rescued!)
If you'd like to do a solo story, I'd love to see Hannibal on his own. Maybe you could show what he was doing during one of the many times when he was offstage working on Benjamin's behalf, trying to bluff his way out of a tight situation.
Endeavour: Endeavour Morse, Monica Hicks, Jim Strange, Max De Bryn
I'd be happy with a story about any or all of these characters. (I like Fred Thursday too, but there was only room for four nominated characters.)
What I Love About This Show: I love the puzzle-piece mysteries, the trails of complicated clues, the way Morse thinks around corners. I love the way Morse continually grapples with his past and present: he's still very much trying to figure out what kind of person he wants to be, and where his innate qualities lead him. I love the subtleties of all of his interactions with people who knew him when he was a student at Oxford, and all of the complex implications about class and snobbery that go into that. I love that he's brilliant but also fallible: sometimes his leaps of intellect don't work, and sometimes he's trapped by his own preconceptions. I love Morse's love of music, and the way the show weaves music in with the story. I love the quiet restraint of the tone; the abbreviated way that people speak, and the way there's always just a little more that's left unspoken.
I would absolutely adore casefic that gets all of these characters working together, but I'd also be happy with a solo story for one of them, or for a story that only includes a couple of them. Here are some ideas:
- What was Monica doing when she was offstage? I am still hugely disappointed at the way the show shortchanged and ignored her. I'd love to see her get the narrative focus that she deserves, to see her working through Morse's abandonment, and to see her standing strongly on her own.
- Monica and De Bryn solving a medical mystery. I could absolutely see these two having a personality clash, but also respecting each other's competence. I loved the little glimpse of De Bryn’s emotional side that we saw when he had to treat the little boy in S5, and I’d love to see more of that.
- Some kind of supernatural occurrence, especially Morse’s skepticism pushing up against actual proof of the supernatural. A ghost story, a crossover or fusion with some other fandom that involves magic - Harry Potter, or Strange and Norrell. (Where does Jim Strange’s family come from?)
- Another literary fusion, along the lines of the Great Gatsby and Lion in Winter episodes. Shakespeare would be awesome - maybe Hamlet or Macbeth, since both of those feature murders? Or another play, if you feel inspired in that direction.
El Ministerio del Tiempo: Ernesto, Irene, Velazquez
What I Love About This Show: Time travel is my current catnip. I love the idea of people from all eras mingling together and finding common bonds. I love the mix of the magical and the mundane: Roman soldiers and Regency gentry standing in line in the Ministry cafeteria; government audits; laptops in the 16th century, doors that can open up into closets or courtyards or bathrooms.
I even love the wackiness of their time-travel rules: that time keeps moving forward so that there’s always a Ministry at the end of time, that cellphones work at any era in the past (?), that the doors work in Spain defined politically rather than geographically (??)
Most of all, I love the debates about the ethics of time travel. Why do we need to keep history the same? Why can’t we change things for the better? Why can’t we save the people we love? I really wish that the show would fully grapple with the uglier aspects of Spanish history, and the moral conflicts that come from being unable to change them: the show makes a start, especially in S3, but I really wish they'd done more.
I discovered this show right in the middle of nominations, so I was too late to nominate my favorite characters! But I’m OK with a story about any or all of the nominated characters. With a fandom as tiny as this one, I will take any and all fics that I can get!
If you’d like to bring in other characters, I’d like that - I love ensemble stories. (If you want to bring in other characters, I’d especially love to see Amelia or Angustias. There isn’t anyone who I absolutely Do Not Want, but I’m not super into Pacino.)
My order of preference is: Irene, Ernesto, and Velazquez.
I love Irene’s confidence, moral ambivalence, pragmatism, and extreme competence. I’d love to see her being badass and competent as a field agent! How did she work for justice within the boundaries of the Ministry? How does she balance her drive for justice with her increasing investment in the Ministry's administration? It would also be cool to see something about her relationship with Nuria - her conflict about having to hide things from her wife would make for some really interesting emotional drama. Or, I would adore some Irene/Amelia romance: they're both so intelligent and competent, and Amelia has just a tiny bit of ruthlessness in her that would make her a good fit with Irene. Most of all, I’d love to see Irene being happy. Happy with Nuria or Amelia or Rocio; happy with her work; anything.
I love Ernesto’s extreme competence, determined ethics, emotional restraint, and utter loyalty to the Ministry. I loved the episode where Ernesto helped Alonso adjust to living in the present day: picking out clothes, figuring out technology, etc. I’d love to see Ernesto’s own struggle with modernity when he first arrived from the past. What technology confused him? What aspects of modernity did he love? Did his desire to escape his past mean that he embraced modernity, or was he conflicted? I also love his paternal attitude towards Young!Lola: how he has faith in her when nobody else does, and recognizes her competence. (If you choose Ernesto, please do not lean too hard on the Torquemada connection or anything to do with the Inquisition.)
I love the uneasy détente between Irene and Ernesto: how they both want to do what’s best for the Ministry even though they disagree about what that means; how they come together in moments of crisis; how they try to rebuild the trust that they’ve lost in each other.
I’m less excited about Velazquez than I am about the others, but I like him OK. So if you want to do a more lighthearted story, I’d be happy for a solo story about Velazquez - the others don’t really lend themselves very well to humor! Or, if you want to do a story about art and artists - I always like the way he talks about the artists that they meet throughout history, with his particular mix of egotism and admiration.
I’d also be happy with a general “life in the Ministry” story. I really really love the way Ministry apartments work - how spooky and wonderful is it that there are always hundreds of people living in the same apartment at different times? Or, something about the mechanics of the doors, or figuring out how to communicate across time, or something like that.
The Bright Sessions
What I Love About This Podcast: I love its inclusivity: the way it shows people of all kinds of sexualities and religions and backgrounds. I respect the way it represents the complexities of mental illness. I love the slow build of the conspiracy. I love the way it acknowledges that there are no easy answers to any of the characters’ problems, and the way it makes them repeatedly reconsider their ideals as their situations change. I love the found family that grows out of the story, and the loving trust that the characters discover for each other - and yet, the relationships are authentically complicated and difficult, and trust needs to be rebuilt after it’s lost.
I would be happy to receive a story about any or all of the nominated characters. Here are a few of my favorites, and a few ideas for each.
Adam and/or Caleb. I rooted for these two so hard through the whole series. I’d love to see more! I love their goofiness; I love how authentically awkward they are about their emotions; I love their deep devotion to each other. What happens when they go away to college? How does Adam help Caleb deal with the difficulties of living in a dorm? How do they grow as individuals and as a couple? What happens when each of them meets other atypicals at college? (I would adore seeing Adam being a good ally to the atypical community at Yale.) What finally makes them (sniffle) break up? I love them as a couple, but I really appreciate the way that the show represents their understanding that their relationship would have to end someday.
Sam: What I want to see most about Sam is one of her time-travel missions to learn about atypicals. How far back does she go? What does she discover? Are there any interesting historical figures that turn out to be atypical? Or, for another angle on Sam: I loved seeing how her friendship with Joan evolved near the end of the series - how their relationship became more equal and more intimate, but also more complicated and tense because of their increasingly entangled professional and personal ties. I’d love to see more of that.
Rose: I love thinking about Rose’s happy all-atypical family! It would be great to see some domestic scenes. What was it like for Rose as a kid when she didn’t necessarily realize that her family wasn’t like the others? What are Jewish holidays like at her house? Or, it would be cool to carry forward Rose’s relationship with Emily. What happens when Rose tells her about her abilities? It would also be interesting to see the evolution of Rose’s politics with regard to the AM and Dr. Bright’s new organization.
The Bone Key: Kyle Murchison Booth, Claudia Coburn
What I Love About These Stories: I love the style of the writing: the lyrical restraint and quiet melancholy. I love the way that the stories allow Kyle to work through his pain so that he can set his old ghosts (literally and metaphorically) to rest, but they also acknowledge that resolving trauma isn’t that simple.
What I Love About These Characters: I love the way they work together as a team: her practicality offsets his otherworldliness, and each one's intelligence complements the other's. I love the way that neither of them quite fits into the real world. I'd love to see them on another case together.
Or, I'd love a solo story about Claudia. After that first case with Kyle, did she seek out more encounters with the supernatural, or did she try to run from it? How did she come to work at the Parrington? What was she like when she was younger?
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