Dear Yuletide Letter
Nothing to see here, except my annual ridiculously epic Yuletide Letter:
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Firstly, thank you! You are ready to attempt to write something for me - and you share a tiny fandom with me. ♥
I am a great believer in the story that you want to tell being the one that's going to be the most compelling to read, so please, write that. In fact, for several of these requests, what I want most of all is just to see what you would write in these worlds. So, if you are the sort of person who likes a concise letter and a free hand, please, just go for what you have in mind. All the extra details are for souls like me who want them. Do not attempt to give me everything below in one fic; you'd do yourself an injury. If anything seems contradictory, it's mostly because I like all sorts of different things at different times in different fandoms. So, if you've got that burning idea, go write it. I'm sure I will love it.
Some Likes/Dislikes: I tend not to read much pr0n, although I will take whatever you feel the story needs. That's not to say I don't enjoy mild shippiness (and I adore reading about the subtleties, interactions and different dynamics of all kinds of relationships between people/groups). Less is more, if you feel led that way, though, and unless I've said otherwise, you're safer with canonical pairings than non-canonical ones. I don't like any kind of character-bashing or OOC-ness (which I'm sure, Dear Writer, you would never do) - if I love a fandom, I tend to like everyone in it. I enjoy the canon, worlds and settings of these fandoms, too, so I'd tend not to want an AU or a fixit. That said, I have seen too many fabulous AUs to rule that out if you have a great idea for it. (And if you want to AU anything, it's safer to put SF/fantasy elements into a world and see how the characters deal (shenanigans may well ensue) than to take them away.)
If you want to know more about my fic likes/dislikes etc. my last Yuletide letter is here, in which I waffled far too much about such things.) Feel free to engage in any Yuletide stalking - most fannish things here are open, my fic is on AO3, and you can check my recs tags (or look on Calufrax) if you want to see what fic I've enjoyed.
Fandom details follow, but it's important to note that I chose my requests carefully and I do want them equally (despite Enemy at the Door getting an essay. I've rewritten it four times now and it's still not concise at all, SORRY about that).
I also chose things where I love the canon itself, so any fic that resembles a missing slice of that is always, always going to be appreciated and loved, no matter what suggestions I may or may not throw out there. I assume, if you're here, you love it too, so we'll be fine.
Enough about me, let's cut to the chase...
1. The Ten Stupidest Things I've Heard Since Richard III's Remains Were Identified
Any
Anything you want to play with from this list would make me happy! If you want prompts, here are the parts I am probably most entertained by:
* Tudor spies across time! I'm not sure whether this would imply that a network of Tudor spies has been continued from generation to generation down through the years (and why, and who was involved - hopefully a lot of totally unlikely people - Florence Nightingale was a Tudor Spy etc. etc.!!) OR whether there are Time Travelling Tudor spies who get about by means unknown making sure the Timeline never takes a Yorkist turn and possibly spreading anti-Richard III propaganda about. Who knows?
* Richard III's ancestors demand burial in York. I love this headline. (It reminds me somehow of the scene at the start of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.) Argumentative ghosts? And if Richard's ancestors ghosts are demanding his burial, does his ghost even agree? Is this just the afterlife equivalent of being embarrassed by your family?
* A theme park full of cloned British monarchs. Well, in this day and age, it'd be done for Reality TV purposes, wouldn't it? And that would never go well. Would they band together and escape? Fight each other? Sneak out into the modern world and go native? Write letters of complaint about historical dramas? Or something else?
With this one, just have fun. Or possibly, be very serious. I am entirely in your hands. (And this request isn't about Richard III-bashing - it's just a wonderfully silly collection of things people really should have thought about before they said/typed them that could be huge fun to play with in fic terms. I sit firmly on the fence here, pending more evidence, even if we'll never have it, but I'm not about throwing hate at one side or the other.)
2. Enemy at the Door (TV)
Any
I'll take anything and anyone in this fandom - what happened next, future fic, backstories, missing scenes, missing episodes, vignettes, maybe even AUs (i could see some sort of what if scenario working here, especially if contrasted with what is, if that makes sense). I'm not sure I'm ready to handle much non-canonical shippiness, but, as I said, please, whatever you have an idea for.
I do feel slightly bad about requesting something like this, but I loved this show so much, so unexpectedly and it was left unfinished - and since it's based on the rl WWII German Occupation of the Channel Islands, there is a certain amount of definite "what happened next" out there that people could write. It isn't cheerful, though, or shippy, or new and shiny, or famous. But it was very well written and played and focused on a fascinating point in history in a really layered, complex and interesting way. Every character who appears has motivation, respect as a person that they may or may not deserve and it's fundamentally about what happened, the morality of survival, what humanity does to itself, the ironies of war, and an island and its occupying force almost as a study in Stockholm Syndrome, and it's not afraid to portray some pretty heart-breaking things in a very understated way. (Terribly British, I suppose!) It's not perfect, of course, and it's slow old TV, so if by some miracle you're here for this, then thank you! All my requests are odd and obscure (that's what Yuletide is for, isn't it?) but this is more than most, so I am grateful.
Some ideas:
* mainly WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? If you want to follow up on the aftermath of the S2 finale or cover some of the events that happened in rl after spring 1943, I'd love anything like that. (Not that I wish to seem ghoulish, but in rl, the situation got increasingly desperate - by-passed by D-Day, the Islanders nearly starved through the winter of 1944 and were only kept alive by Red Cross parcels; there were power struggles between a fanatic Nazi Admiral and the General who was commander in chief etc.) I can't help but wonder how the EatD characters would deal with that, especially Richter. Post-Liberation, too - there was a lot of unrest and also people like Martel found themselves being investigated by British Intelligence as collaborators. But anything you want to pick up and use would be great - the show often focuses on small, mundane events, so if you want to do the same, I'll love that.
*Also "The Education of Nils Borg" seems to set up some interesting things - particularly that Richter's wife Anna has been arrested by the Gestapo for anti-Nazi remarks; that would be something I'd like to know more about - and indeed I'd love to hear more about Anna and Richter, if you felt so inclined.
* Richter and Martel meet up in some sort of awkward post-war Coda. Assuming they both survive, which I suppose can't be guaranteed... (I like their relationship/not-actually-friendship/whatever it is very much. I love the episode where Richter gets devious in order to have Martel back on the Controlling Committee probably more than I should.)
* And I am interested in Olive and Clare, too! Olive's at first sight the typical housewife, but I like the glimpses we see of what pre-war Olive may have been like, and her perceptiveness (that sometimes Clare and Philip overlook). (I like, incidentally, how Richter respects what she says - and remembers it - on the couple of occasions where they have a conversation.) Also, I am in love with Philip & Olive now: "Olive, you're a great chump - but lovely." I would be very happy to have any more such shippiness between them, or to know something about them in happier pre-war days. Clare is interesting, too - her experiences wind up being different to everyone else's: her crime, her payment, also that her relationship with Peter gets postponed and what that means for both of them. And Clive... and...
If you would write for this had I nominated other characters - well, honestly, it was a tough decision and there's not one of the regulars (and many of the one-off characters) I wouldn't adore fic for. If you wanted Reinicke, Kluge, or Helen, or Peter, please, please, just write them. Any fic for this non-existent fandom would be marvellous.
As a note, I don't mind if you need to kill someone (this fandom only). I have no illusions that everyone in this show would make it alive to the end of the War. Of course, that doesn't mean you have to! I just want you to know that you have full poetic license on the issue. And (from what little reading on the subject I've managed to do, which, fear not, is very little) it's clear that the show borrowed some very specific rl events, but did fictionalise things and nobody's actually based on their rl counterparts. You should feel equally free - it's about these characters first and foremost, even though obviously the rl setting is important.
Oh, and characters can grumble about ersatz coffee and tea as much as they want. ;-p
3. Miss Marple - Agatha Christie
Inspector Neele, Mary Dove
This is an odd one, I know, so if you offered "any" and now are tearing your hair out in despair at my life choices, let me say straight out, that I really do adore Miss Marple herself and if you want instead to write Miss Marple doing what she does best (including in other fandoms, if you felt so inclined because that is never not awesome) feel free to do that and completely ignore my weirdly specific request. I will not complain.
However, I love the way these two interact in A Pocketful of Rye and I have a weakness for the classy thief/Detective vibe. So I would love to see these two meet again, preferably if they get to Fight Crime together. Or Inspector Neele has to fight high class housekeeping-related crime committed by Mary, of course. Whatever goes. Feel free to also call in Miss Marple. Also feel free to ship them in the process (♥), but you don't have to. I just want them to have a rematch of some kind - I think it could be great fun. (Oh, and if you wanted a random idea, Mary is almost like the inverse of Lucy Eylesbarrow (I don't think I've spelt that right) - using awesome housekeeping skills for evil instead of good. You could possibly even use that...)
And this is quite a good escape hatch if we matched on something and you don't like my request - it's one short book and that's it.
4. Indigo Series - Louise Cooper
Indigo & Grimya
Anything with these two would be wonderful - I do love their friendship. The ending also implies that they may remain immortal, so what happens? Where do they go? Do they help other people fight their own demons? Or any missing scene with them is fine!
I loved this series in my late teens and have recently been reunited with my copies (it's been a long and painful separation) - and, of course, now I want fic! There are so many loose ends, and also an intriguing world set-up. (If I'm reading the legend at the start of Nemesis aright, Indigo's world is probably our own, millennia on from a Geomagnetic Reversal. I twigged this on my re-read and tried turning the map upside down. Ha.) Anyway, if you are feeling uninspired by Indigo and Grimya, I am curious about what happened to Indigo's world and the way that it works. Also there are many loose ends left hanging, because of the nature of the series, moving onto a new setting each book. I'm most fond of books 3,4,5, 7 & 8, so if you wanted to follow up on any of those characters instead/as well as, or use them as a missing scene, that would be great too. I do love Indigo and Grimya's friendship (I am probably fonder of Grimya than Indigo even) but do feel free to explore anything else from the series.
The one thing I wouldn't want is a fixit for the ending. On my first read, I felt a bit let down by that, so I can absolutely see why someone might want to do that, but several re-reads later, I love that that's how it goes. (Grimya and Indigo, bff literally.) So, while I don't mind at all if you want to look at Fenran's side of the story in any way, or include him, I don't feel that anything needs fixing.
5. Jago & Litefoot
George Litefoot, Henry Gordon Jago
They're just wonderful fun, aren't they? And this is another friendship that I love, so anything you can write with the two of them, even if they just talk to each other for 1000 words, would be marvellous. I haven't heard beyond S2 yet (sorry), and I do plan to, so while I don't mind when it's set, I'd appreciate it if you didn't spoiler me for any main events beyond the beginning of S3. They're both so engaging and together they both make me laugh and aww out loud a lot while listening, while never being what you'd call sentimental.
Some ideas (and if any of these have been done/clash with later series, ignore me):
* Jago & Litefoot and a classic haunted house. A Gothic cliche we haven't had as yet (or I haven't yet as yet, I mean. *curses self's slowness again*).
* I really enjoyed S2, and while this is an even more optional detail, if you wanted to include Gabriel Sanders, I would love that. I love the way he affects the regulars - it becomes more personal for all of them than S1, and the weirdness with Ellie could probably use addressing. (Jago & Litefoot are very old-fashioned heroes and an old-fashioned master villain suits them beautifully as a nemesis, I think. Also, David Collings! Er, not that I'm interested in David Collings. *hides my LJ from you and looks innocent*)
I don't really ship them as such, btw. I do value a good fictional friendship and this is one of my very favourites. (But since my not-shipping them involves loving it when one of them gets jealous/protective, or they need to help each other in the scary times or cling onto each other, or whatever, probably if you do ship them, we've still got an awful lot of common ground to work with. I don't wish to sound soppy in my old age but I draw little hearts around them and their friendship in my head every time I listen. So: ♥)
6. Chalet School - Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
Verity-Ann Carey, Mary-Lou Trelawney
I really enjoy the way these two balance each other out. Anything with them at school, or maybe after they leave, or how they feel about becoming sisters. Or Mary-Lou's archaeological adventures.
I've re-read the Chalet School books a lot recently, and one thing that changed was that I liked Mary-Lou a lot more the last time round. I don't mean that I ever hated her, but I am the sort of reader who while still liking the characters in question, does find it a little tiresome sometimes when it always has to be Joey, or Mary-Lou, or Len who sorts something out. (I think there are so many great characters in the series who are perfectly capable of dealing with many things without the assistance of said three.) But actually, Mary-Lou is a lot more interesting than I had remembered, and she goes through a lot and I've not seen all that much fic for her, and some of that is understandably parodic. I've got a cracky idea below, but I'd love to see a serious look at her and at Verity - there's actually a lot there to explore. And I've always liked Verity, with her stubbornness belying her fairy-like appearance and I love the way their differences compliment each other and how strong their friendship is despite/because of that.
So I'd be happy to read more about them at school, maybe especially if it's one of the times Verity gets Mary-Lou out of a scrape, or what happens to them after they leave - we hear a lot about it (and Verity gets rather short shrift, I think), but we don't see it. Or, as I said, Mary-Lou having archaeological adventures and/or what does Verity do, other than get married?
And, as I've said, everything I've requested here is something where I love the canon and no matter what else I've asked for "more of the same" is always an option, so this is just a random idea, in case you'd like to run with it. I adore the trope where a sensible heroine has to sort out a lot of improbable/criminal/supernatural stuff and does it competently. I think, Chalet girls, brought up to be as prepared as any Boy Scout and familiar with surviving mountain accidents, while being resolutely practical, could fulfil that trope magnificently! I made a commentfic request for something like this once before and got some wonderful ficlets, but they have whetted my appetite for more! So: Mary-Lou has archaeological adventures a la The Mummy or Indiana Jones, or an unlikely adventure with them both fighting crime/vampires/aliens/something in the holidays, or a crossover. Or she fails to see any such thing when it's in front of her. Or maybe Verity has her own adventures that Mary-Lou doesn't know about. Or together They Fight Crime!
However, do not worry: I comfort read the Chalet School every time my life falls apart and even if I think that could be fun, I am never, ever going to be sad for a fully in-keeping missing scene. (I would print it out and fold it into the appropriate book for the next re-read and love it till I caused it to fall apart and had to print it out again.)
Basically, I like these two - play with them! And, honestly, if you put "any" down and are now realising you meant "anyone but them, help!" I LOVE so many of CS characters - some of my favourites were on the nominated list - Grizel, Miss Wilson, Miss Annersley! I would never complain if you wrote me them instead. Or, quite honestly, any character who hasn't been written much - I've absolutely loved CS fic like that when I've come across it, so if you were cursing the fact that no one ever writes X, go for it! (Austria & Armishire are my favourite periods, but I've read all the books. I would prefer a lesser used character if you were going to go off-request like this, though. Which basically means, no Maynards as the focus. I like them, I just love seeing less-used characters get the spotlight.)
So don't panic! I'm sure I will enjoy the fic. (Just obviously, even though I sometimes watch Time Team, I still think that all archaeologists run into animated Mummies and cursed objects and alien artefacts and unscrupulous treasure hunters. It's a terrible thing and I blame the media.)
Oh, and this is really nit-picky, considering all the Elinorisms in the series and how much most of them amuse me, but: Verity-Ann is Verity-Ann in her first story and I get rather oddly annoyed by the Verity-Anne variant. So, please, if you're willing to accommodate my tiny fit of unjustified pedantry - Verity or Verity-Ann, but not Verity-Anne! (I saw it was the canonical form on AO3, so I thought it worth noting that I disagree!)
So, those are my requests! I hope I haven't scared you too much. I do love being told a story, so do that and I'm sure it will be wonderful.
Availability Notes
1. Ten Stupidest Things is one blog post, which I have linked to above! Escape Hatch no. 1!
2. Enemy at the Door was a 1978-1980 UK TV drama (2 series, 26 50min eps) about the Occupation of the Channel Islands. It is out on DVD and there are some clips around YouTube and the BFI website has an entry on it with some clips and the ep The Jerrybag. It probably isn't going to be the easiest to pick up, much as I would love to say otherwise. It was re-run on the UK freeview channel Yesterday last year, but doesn't seem to have come round again since.
3. A Pocketful of Rye is 1 book in Agatha Christie's Miss Marple series, easily available from most libraries and a fairly light read. The two characters I've requested only feature in that novel, so that's escape hatch no. 2 for you!
4. The Indigo series by Louise Cooper is a 1980s/90s 8-book fantasy series. They're out of print, but on Amazon uk at least most of them are 1p plus p&P and since I would be happy with any Indigo & Grimya missing scene, one book should give you all you need if you wanted to try that. They're not doorstops, either. They focus on Anghara Kaligsdaughter (later Indigo) who releases seven demons from a tower and has to travel the world unaging with only Grimya (a female telepathic wolf, outcast from her pack for those abilities) until she has hunted down and killed all of her demons. When I first switched from children's to adult fantasy, I was hugely disappointed by the three-book cliched pattern and these were the first I got my hands on that broke the mold and were very much female-centric, so I will always have a lot of love for them, more than for her Time Master trilogy.
5. Jago & Litefoot is a Big Finish spin-off series featuring Professor George Litefoot and Henry Gordon Jago from the DW serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang, who team up and fight Gothic Cliches in Victorian London. It's available from BF, from Amazon and, er, probably from sources, knowing these things. Since I would be happy with any Litefoot-and-Jago, you could probably even get away with only knowledge of the DW serial. (There's a gap between that and the spin-off series and they seem fairly established as friends and fellow investigators by that time, so fic that bridged that would be really cool, actually. That just struck me writing this.) So, for a DW fan hanging round, it's a potential third escape hatch. Also if you want to try and pick it up, S2 alone would give you all need for my request. (I am so tragically behind, it's terrible.) It's huge fun, mainly because Trevor Baxter and Christopher Benjamin have some sort of magic that goes on whenever they're in the same space talking to each other, even in the interviews in DWM!
6. The Chalet School series is epic and hard to get hold of these days, but your minimum knowledge needed for this request would be Three Go to the Chalet School which is one of the more widely available titles. Still, I don't imagine you're going to dive into a 60-book old-style girls' boarding school series unless you're already here for that. (It is, I say in my defence, strangely appealing and addictive.)
Crossposted from Dreamwidth -- Comments there:
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Firstly, thank you! You are ready to attempt to write something for me - and you share a tiny fandom with me. ♥
I am a great believer in the story that you want to tell being the one that's going to be the most compelling to read, so please, write that. In fact, for several of these requests, what I want most of all is just to see what you would write in these worlds. So, if you are the sort of person who likes a concise letter and a free hand, please, just go for what you have in mind. All the extra details are for souls like me who want them. Do not attempt to give me everything below in one fic; you'd do yourself an injury. If anything seems contradictory, it's mostly because I like all sorts of different things at different times in different fandoms. So, if you've got that burning idea, go write it. I'm sure I will love it.
Some Likes/Dislikes: I tend not to read much pr0n, although I will take whatever you feel the story needs. That's not to say I don't enjoy mild shippiness (and I adore reading about the subtleties, interactions and different dynamics of all kinds of relationships between people/groups). Less is more, if you feel led that way, though, and unless I've said otherwise, you're safer with canonical pairings than non-canonical ones. I don't like any kind of character-bashing or OOC-ness (which I'm sure, Dear Writer, you would never do) - if I love a fandom, I tend to like everyone in it. I enjoy the canon, worlds and settings of these fandoms, too, so I'd tend not to want an AU or a fixit. That said, I have seen too many fabulous AUs to rule that out if you have a great idea for it. (And if you want to AU anything, it's safer to put SF/fantasy elements into a world and see how the characters deal (shenanigans may well ensue) than to take them away.)
If you want to know more about my fic likes/dislikes etc. my last Yuletide letter is here, in which I waffled far too much about such things.) Feel free to engage in any Yuletide stalking - most fannish things here are open, my fic is on AO3, and you can check my recs tags (or look on Calufrax) if you want to see what fic I've enjoyed.
Fandom details follow, but it's important to note that I chose my requests carefully and I do want them equally (despite Enemy at the Door getting an essay. I've rewritten it four times now and it's still not concise at all, SORRY about that).
I also chose things where I love the canon itself, so any fic that resembles a missing slice of that is always, always going to be appreciated and loved, no matter what suggestions I may or may not throw out there. I assume, if you're here, you love it too, so we'll be fine.
Enough about me, let's cut to the chase...
1. The Ten Stupidest Things I've Heard Since Richard III's Remains Were Identified
Any
Anything you want to play with from this list would make me happy! If you want prompts, here are the parts I am probably most entertained by:
* Tudor spies across time! I'm not sure whether this would imply that a network of Tudor spies has been continued from generation to generation down through the years (and why, and who was involved - hopefully a lot of totally unlikely people - Florence Nightingale was a Tudor Spy etc. etc.!!) OR whether there are Time Travelling Tudor spies who get about by means unknown making sure the Timeline never takes a Yorkist turn and possibly spreading anti-Richard III propaganda about. Who knows?
* Richard III's ancestors demand burial in York. I love this headline. (It reminds me somehow of the scene at the start of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.) Argumentative ghosts? And if Richard's ancestors ghosts are demanding his burial, does his ghost even agree? Is this just the afterlife equivalent of being embarrassed by your family?
* A theme park full of cloned British monarchs. Well, in this day and age, it'd be done for Reality TV purposes, wouldn't it? And that would never go well. Would they band together and escape? Fight each other? Sneak out into the modern world and go native? Write letters of complaint about historical dramas? Or something else?
With this one, just have fun. Or possibly, be very serious. I am entirely in your hands. (And this request isn't about Richard III-bashing - it's just a wonderfully silly collection of things people really should have thought about before they said/typed them that could be huge fun to play with in fic terms. I sit firmly on the fence here, pending more evidence, even if we'll never have it, but I'm not about throwing hate at one side or the other.)
2. Enemy at the Door (TV)
Any
I'll take anything and anyone in this fandom - what happened next, future fic, backstories, missing scenes, missing episodes, vignettes, maybe even AUs (i could see some sort of what if scenario working here, especially if contrasted with what is, if that makes sense). I'm not sure I'm ready to handle much non-canonical shippiness, but, as I said, please, whatever you have an idea for.
I do feel slightly bad about requesting something like this, but I loved this show so much, so unexpectedly and it was left unfinished - and since it's based on the rl WWII German Occupation of the Channel Islands, there is a certain amount of definite "what happened next" out there that people could write. It isn't cheerful, though, or shippy, or new and shiny, or famous. But it was very well written and played and focused on a fascinating point in history in a really layered, complex and interesting way. Every character who appears has motivation, respect as a person that they may or may not deserve and it's fundamentally about what happened, the morality of survival, what humanity does to itself, the ironies of war, and an island and its occupying force almost as a study in Stockholm Syndrome, and it's not afraid to portray some pretty heart-breaking things in a very understated way. (Terribly British, I suppose!) It's not perfect, of course, and it's slow old TV, so if by some miracle you're here for this, then thank you! All my requests are odd and obscure (that's what Yuletide is for, isn't it?) but this is more than most, so I am grateful.
Some ideas:
* mainly WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? If you want to follow up on the aftermath of the S2 finale or cover some of the events that happened in rl after spring 1943, I'd love anything like that. (Not that I wish to seem ghoulish, but in rl, the situation got increasingly desperate - by-passed by D-Day, the Islanders nearly starved through the winter of 1944 and were only kept alive by Red Cross parcels; there were power struggles between a fanatic Nazi Admiral and the General who was commander in chief etc.) I can't help but wonder how the EatD characters would deal with that, especially Richter. Post-Liberation, too - there was a lot of unrest and also people like Martel found themselves being investigated by British Intelligence as collaborators. But anything you want to pick up and use would be great - the show often focuses on small, mundane events, so if you want to do the same, I'll love that.
*Also "The Education of Nils Borg" seems to set up some interesting things - particularly that Richter's wife Anna has been arrested by the Gestapo for anti-Nazi remarks; that would be something I'd like to know more about - and indeed I'd love to hear more about Anna and Richter, if you felt so inclined.
* Richter and Martel meet up in some sort of awkward post-war Coda. Assuming they both survive, which I suppose can't be guaranteed... (I like their relationship/not-actually-friendship/whatever it is very much. I love the episode where Richter gets devious in order to have Martel back on the Controlling Committee probably more than I should.)
* And I am interested in Olive and Clare, too! Olive's at first sight the typical housewife, but I like the glimpses we see of what pre-war Olive may have been like, and her perceptiveness (that sometimes Clare and Philip overlook). (I like, incidentally, how Richter respects what she says - and remembers it - on the couple of occasions where they have a conversation.) Also, I am in love with Philip & Olive now: "Olive, you're a great chump - but lovely." I would be very happy to have any more such shippiness between them, or to know something about them in happier pre-war days. Clare is interesting, too - her experiences wind up being different to everyone else's: her crime, her payment, also that her relationship with Peter gets postponed and what that means for both of them. And Clive... and...
If you would write for this had I nominated other characters - well, honestly, it was a tough decision and there's not one of the regulars (and many of the one-off characters) I wouldn't adore fic for. If you wanted Reinicke, Kluge, or Helen, or Peter, please, please, just write them. Any fic for this non-existent fandom would be marvellous.
As a note, I don't mind if you need to kill someone (this fandom only). I have no illusions that everyone in this show would make it alive to the end of the War. Of course, that doesn't mean you have to! I just want you to know that you have full poetic license on the issue. And (from what little reading on the subject I've managed to do, which, fear not, is very little) it's clear that the show borrowed some very specific rl events, but did fictionalise things and nobody's actually based on their rl counterparts. You should feel equally free - it's about these characters first and foremost, even though obviously the rl setting is important.
Oh, and characters can grumble about ersatz coffee and tea as much as they want. ;-p
3. Miss Marple - Agatha Christie
Inspector Neele, Mary Dove
This is an odd one, I know, so if you offered "any" and now are tearing your hair out in despair at my life choices, let me say straight out, that I really do adore Miss Marple herself and if you want instead to write Miss Marple doing what she does best (including in other fandoms, if you felt so inclined because that is never not awesome) feel free to do that and completely ignore my weirdly specific request. I will not complain.
However, I love the way these two interact in A Pocketful of Rye and I have a weakness for the classy thief/Detective vibe. So I would love to see these two meet again, preferably if they get to Fight Crime together. Or Inspector Neele has to fight high class housekeeping-related crime committed by Mary, of course. Whatever goes. Feel free to also call in Miss Marple. Also feel free to ship them in the process (♥), but you don't have to. I just want them to have a rematch of some kind - I think it could be great fun. (Oh, and if you wanted a random idea, Mary is almost like the inverse of Lucy Eylesbarrow (I don't think I've spelt that right) - using awesome housekeeping skills for evil instead of good. You could possibly even use that...)
And this is quite a good escape hatch if we matched on something and you don't like my request - it's one short book and that's it.
4. Indigo Series - Louise Cooper
Indigo & Grimya
Anything with these two would be wonderful - I do love their friendship. The ending also implies that they may remain immortal, so what happens? Where do they go? Do they help other people fight their own demons? Or any missing scene with them is fine!
I loved this series in my late teens and have recently been reunited with my copies (it's been a long and painful separation) - and, of course, now I want fic! There are so many loose ends, and also an intriguing world set-up. (If I'm reading the legend at the start of Nemesis aright, Indigo's world is probably our own, millennia on from a Geomagnetic Reversal. I twigged this on my re-read and tried turning the map upside down. Ha.) Anyway, if you are feeling uninspired by Indigo and Grimya, I am curious about what happened to Indigo's world and the way that it works. Also there are many loose ends left hanging, because of the nature of the series, moving onto a new setting each book. I'm most fond of books 3,4,5, 7 & 8, so if you wanted to follow up on any of those characters instead/as well as, or use them as a missing scene, that would be great too. I do love Indigo and Grimya's friendship (I am probably fonder of Grimya than Indigo even) but do feel free to explore anything else from the series.
The one thing I wouldn't want is a fixit for the ending. On my first read, I felt a bit let down by that, so I can absolutely see why someone might want to do that, but several re-reads later, I love that that's how it goes. (Grimya and Indigo, bff literally.) So, while I don't mind at all if you want to look at Fenran's side of the story in any way, or include him, I don't feel that anything needs fixing.
5. Jago & Litefoot
George Litefoot, Henry Gordon Jago
They're just wonderful fun, aren't they? And this is another friendship that I love, so anything you can write with the two of them, even if they just talk to each other for 1000 words, would be marvellous. I haven't heard beyond S2 yet (sorry), and I do plan to, so while I don't mind when it's set, I'd appreciate it if you didn't spoiler me for any main events beyond the beginning of S3. They're both so engaging and together they both make me laugh and aww out loud a lot while listening, while never being what you'd call sentimental.
Some ideas (and if any of these have been done/clash with later series, ignore me):
* Jago & Litefoot and a classic haunted house. A Gothic cliche we haven't had as yet (or I haven't yet as yet, I mean. *curses self's slowness again*).
* I really enjoyed S2, and while this is an even more optional detail, if you wanted to include Gabriel Sanders, I would love that. I love the way he affects the regulars - it becomes more personal for all of them than S1, and the weirdness with Ellie could probably use addressing. (Jago & Litefoot are very old-fashioned heroes and an old-fashioned master villain suits them beautifully as a nemesis, I think. Also, David Collings! Er, not that I'm interested in David Collings. *hides my LJ from you and looks innocent*)
I don't really ship them as such, btw. I do value a good fictional friendship and this is one of my very favourites. (But since my not-shipping them involves loving it when one of them gets jealous/protective, or they need to help each other in the scary times or cling onto each other, or whatever, probably if you do ship them, we've still got an awful lot of common ground to work with. I don't wish to sound soppy in my old age but I draw little hearts around them and their friendship in my head every time I listen. So: ♥)
6. Chalet School - Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
Verity-Ann Carey, Mary-Lou Trelawney
I really enjoy the way these two balance each other out. Anything with them at school, or maybe after they leave, or how they feel about becoming sisters. Or Mary-Lou's archaeological adventures.
I've re-read the Chalet School books a lot recently, and one thing that changed was that I liked Mary-Lou a lot more the last time round. I don't mean that I ever hated her, but I am the sort of reader who while still liking the characters in question, does find it a little tiresome sometimes when it always has to be Joey, or Mary-Lou, or Len who sorts something out. (I think there are so many great characters in the series who are perfectly capable of dealing with many things without the assistance of said three.) But actually, Mary-Lou is a lot more interesting than I had remembered, and she goes through a lot and I've not seen all that much fic for her, and some of that is understandably parodic. I've got a cracky idea below, but I'd love to see a serious look at her and at Verity - there's actually a lot there to explore. And I've always liked Verity, with her stubbornness belying her fairy-like appearance and I love the way their differences compliment each other and how strong their friendship is despite/because of that.
So I'd be happy to read more about them at school, maybe especially if it's one of the times Verity gets Mary-Lou out of a scrape, or what happens to them after they leave - we hear a lot about it (and Verity gets rather short shrift, I think), but we don't see it. Or, as I said, Mary-Lou having archaeological adventures and/or what does Verity do, other than get married?
And, as I've said, everything I've requested here is something where I love the canon and no matter what else I've asked for "more of the same" is always an option, so this is just a random idea, in case you'd like to run with it. I adore the trope where a sensible heroine has to sort out a lot of improbable/criminal/supernatural stuff and does it competently. I think, Chalet girls, brought up to be as prepared as any Boy Scout and familiar with surviving mountain accidents, while being resolutely practical, could fulfil that trope magnificently! I made a commentfic request for something like this once before and got some wonderful ficlets, but they have whetted my appetite for more! So: Mary-Lou has archaeological adventures a la The Mummy or Indiana Jones, or an unlikely adventure with them both fighting crime/vampires/aliens/something in the holidays, or a crossover. Or she fails to see any such thing when it's in front of her. Or maybe Verity has her own adventures that Mary-Lou doesn't know about. Or together They Fight Crime!
However, do not worry: I comfort read the Chalet School every time my life falls apart and even if I think that could be fun, I am never, ever going to be sad for a fully in-keeping missing scene. (I would print it out and fold it into the appropriate book for the next re-read and love it till I caused it to fall apart and had to print it out again.)
Basically, I like these two - play with them! And, honestly, if you put "any" down and are now realising you meant "anyone but them, help!" I LOVE so many of CS characters - some of my favourites were on the nominated list - Grizel, Miss Wilson, Miss Annersley! I would never complain if you wrote me them instead. Or, quite honestly, any character who hasn't been written much - I've absolutely loved CS fic like that when I've come across it, so if you were cursing the fact that no one ever writes X, go for it! (Austria & Armishire are my favourite periods, but I've read all the books. I would prefer a lesser used character if you were going to go off-request like this, though. Which basically means, no Maynards as the focus. I like them, I just love seeing less-used characters get the spotlight.)
So don't panic! I'm sure I will enjoy the fic. (Just obviously, even though I sometimes watch Time Team, I still think that all archaeologists run into animated Mummies and cursed objects and alien artefacts and unscrupulous treasure hunters. It's a terrible thing and I blame the media.)
Oh, and this is really nit-picky, considering all the Elinorisms in the series and how much most of them amuse me, but: Verity-Ann is Verity-Ann in her first story and I get rather oddly annoyed by the Verity-Anne variant. So, please, if you're willing to accommodate my tiny fit of unjustified pedantry - Verity or Verity-Ann, but not Verity-Anne! (I saw it was the canonical form on AO3, so I thought it worth noting that I disagree!)
So, those are my requests! I hope I haven't scared you too much. I do love being told a story, so do that and I'm sure it will be wonderful.
Availability Notes
1. Ten Stupidest Things is one blog post, which I have linked to above! Escape Hatch no. 1!
2. Enemy at the Door was a 1978-1980 UK TV drama (2 series, 26 50min eps) about the Occupation of the Channel Islands. It is out on DVD and there are some clips around YouTube and the BFI website has an entry on it with some clips and the ep The Jerrybag. It probably isn't going to be the easiest to pick up, much as I would love to say otherwise. It was re-run on the UK freeview channel Yesterday last year, but doesn't seem to have come round again since.
3. A Pocketful of Rye is 1 book in Agatha Christie's Miss Marple series, easily available from most libraries and a fairly light read. The two characters I've requested only feature in that novel, so that's escape hatch no. 2 for you!
4. The Indigo series by Louise Cooper is a 1980s/90s 8-book fantasy series. They're out of print, but on Amazon uk at least most of them are 1p plus p&P and since I would be happy with any Indigo & Grimya missing scene, one book should give you all you need if you wanted to try that. They're not doorstops, either. They focus on Anghara Kaligsdaughter (later Indigo) who releases seven demons from a tower and has to travel the world unaging with only Grimya (a female telepathic wolf, outcast from her pack for those abilities) until she has hunted down and killed all of her demons. When I first switched from children's to adult fantasy, I was hugely disappointed by the three-book cliched pattern and these were the first I got my hands on that broke the mold and were very much female-centric, so I will always have a lot of love for them, more than for her Time Master trilogy.
5. Jago & Litefoot is a Big Finish spin-off series featuring Professor George Litefoot and Henry Gordon Jago from the DW serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang, who team up and fight Gothic Cliches in Victorian London. It's available from BF, from Amazon and, er, probably from sources, knowing these things. Since I would be happy with any Litefoot-and-Jago, you could probably even get away with only knowledge of the DW serial. (There's a gap between that and the spin-off series and they seem fairly established as friends and fellow investigators by that time, so fic that bridged that would be really cool, actually. That just struck me writing this.) So, for a DW fan hanging round, it's a potential third escape hatch. Also if you want to try and pick it up, S2 alone would give you all need for my request. (I am so tragically behind, it's terrible.) It's huge fun, mainly because Trevor Baxter and Christopher Benjamin have some sort of magic that goes on whenever they're in the same space talking to each other, even in the interviews in DWM!
6. The Chalet School series is epic and hard to get hold of these days, but your minimum knowledge needed for this request would be Three Go to the Chalet School which is one of the more widely available titles. Still, I don't imagine you're going to dive into a 60-book old-style girls' boarding school series unless you're already here for that. (It is, I say in my defence, strangely appealing and addictive.)
Crossposted from Dreamwidth -- Comments there: