Dear Yuletide Letter 2017
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Hello and welcome! I hope this letter will be helpful, but I know some prefer long letters (like me) and some short (in which case, I'm sorry, dear, author; I've never yet been able to manage a concise Yule-letter). But tl;dr: I like an awful lot of things, sometimes very different things in different contexts, I love these fandoms very much, and I'll enjoy most things that you write for my chosen characters in them. As long as you avoid my few hard and fast DNWs, it'll be fine. I very much hope you have fun writing for me.
That said, here is the long version...
Likes: Humour, missing adventures, friendship, hurt/comfort, fantasy, history, mysteries, ghosts, casefic, crossovers, banter, trope subversion, trapped together tropes, fake marriages/marriage of conveniences, forced to work together, five times, dancing, epistolary, apocalypses, plot, spies, found families, winning through hard times to happy endings, comedy of manners, aliens made them do it etc. (In shippy things I tend to prefer implicit/lead-ins to explicit scenes - emotions, touch/sensation, first times, historical costumes & undressing, kissing, emotions conveyed by things other than words, balancing each other out etc.)
I enjoy AUs, but see the individual request prompts for the fandoms I'm more open to receiving them in. I am fine with gen/het/femslash/slash/poly in general, though please stick to relationships requested below (though acknowledgement of canonical relationships is fine).
DNW: graphic descriptions of violence/gore, incest, (non-canonical) rape, PWP explicit pr0n, over-eating/greed.
In general I am less keen on: pregnancy, kidfic, (non-canonical) tragic endings, emphasis on real medical condictions (unless canon), issuefic, fixit fic, non-canonical character death. (But as you will see from my likes and requests, I like some of these sometimes, so don't worry too much - see the specific fandom requests below.)
Feel free to engage in any Yuletide 'stalking' as you please. A lot of my fannish entries here are public anyway. I have a dear author tag here, where you will find previous exchange letters. My fic is here on AO3 and you can check my recs tag here (or see my reccing stints on Calufrax (DW-only) and gensplosion) if you think any of that might help. But mostly: good luck, and don't worry - I'm looking forward to reading whatever you come up with!
Daughters of Mannerling - M C Beaton
Mannerling
So, I was just casually reading another MC Beaton Regency romance series, and then it turned out that the stately house was possessed/evil and drove everyone to desperate acts to possess it. This is the kind of crack I am here for, and I want to know more than a slight romance series can tell me about Mannerling.
(If you don't know it, the books are pretty light, easy to speed through the whole lot in a day or two, let alone just one of them, which would be pretty much sufficient to get the gist. Picture Pemberly but EVIL and there you have it.)
How did Mannerling wind up that way? Is it merely so in love with its own perfect proportions and immaculate landscaping, it just happened? Built on a cursed burial site, or was someone murdered back in the day? Were the previous (if any) grand houses there equally evil? What happened to previous generations?
Or, Mannerling: the next generation, or a suitable period crossover. What happens next? What would happen if it ran up against a character too narcissitic to be affected by it? Does it attract more governesses to thwart it as the century progresses? Or is it later investigated by one of those many (many) late 19th detectives? Is it related to Honeysuckle Cottage? Who knows? When the 20th C rolls around, is it the inevitable location for a Golden Age murder houseparty?
Or later still - does it get burned to the ground? What happens when the land is purchased for a new housing development, or does it become the hill that people die on? Does it survive and get used for a gov't department with the highest casualty rate in the country? Do the National Trust/English Heritage have to deal with it? Does one of those endless 60s/70s government agencies investigate it, or must it be ultimately stopped by a higher power?
The above are just some of my wild ideas - please let them be inspirations if needed, not restrictions if not! The only thing I'd add here is that I'm not into too much graphic/bleak horror/violence (although I'd be fine with a more Gothic/serious approach to Mannerling, as long as at least one or two of the next victims escape its clutches - this letter includes Dracula, that is about my exact horror limitation, if that helps). It also seems like a good possiblity for epistolary fic, too. I am fine with Mannerling being reduced to ashes or rubble at any point, but only after more sinister goings-on, of course.
I'd be happy with a crossover - it seems like a request that could lend itself to one, if you felt that way inclined. My other requested fandoms would all fit, I think (SotT aside, unless, I suppose, the dark origins of Mannerling lie in Henry's reign! it could be!), but also, from the tagset: Adam Adamant Lives!, The Avengers, Jonathan Creek, New Tricks, The Mummy Series, any Heyers or Austens (what would Catherine make of Mannerling? Or the characters from The Talisman Ring? Would The Grand Sophy flatten it?), or a problem for Miss Marple, Alleyn, or Poirot. (But just look over my tags/interests if you've got any ideas of your own - any time I make a list like this, I miss at least six obvious things, no matter what I do!)
But this is very much a do what you will request: I am fascinated and entertained by the mere possibility of what someone might make of it for Yuletide. Please, have fun with it and I'm sure I will love the results.
Department S
Annabelle Hirst, Stewart Sullivan, Jason King, Sir Curtis Seretse
Missing scenes, OT3ishness (platonic or shippy), casefic, banter, Mark Caine meta/humour - all would be lovely here.
Annabelle, Stewart and Jason are a great trio, with their different abilities balancing each other out - all very competent and professional, but in completely different ways & all relying on each other and secretly caring very much, despite all the banter. Anything with them interacting would be adored, whether on a case, hanging out, or even that one actual OT3 time they don't talk about because Reasons, or Stewart/Annabelle shippiness + Jason, whatever! Sir Curtis is also great, and I love how much he cares about all three of his operatives (no matter how he keeps assuring them that isn't the case). I do want him included, whether only his usual brief appearances, or letting him join in the investigation (as he does in that art theft episode). If I have a favourite, it's probably Annabelle, but it's the combination of all three/four here that's just so perfect and that's what I want more of: Department S together and doing what they do best. <3
I love the added meta-humour edge and in-jokes that the Mark Caine series provides and all the references to the books we get. Maybe you could come up with an adventure contrasted with Jason's fictionalised version?
Or what if one of their out-there 'Mary Celeste' type problems actually turned out to be something supernatural just once? (I'm sure they'd cope brilliantly! If they could believe it...)
Dracula (TV 1968
Lucy Weston, Mina Harker, John Seward, Abraham Van Helsing
I've had fic for this for the last two years, and they were both very different and great. So I told myself I shouldn't asking for it again, but let's face it, if it's in the tagset, how can I resist? When I said I wanted all the fic, I meant it.
You don't necessarily need to include all the requested characters, especially since canon events could make that difficult. Hopefully, the prompts below should provide some diffferent combinations and suggestions.
I ship Lucy/Mina, Mina/John, Mina/John/Lucy and some John/Lucy, and enjoy Van Helsing & John (though I would obviously be happy to see Van Helsing get to interact with Mina or Lucy more than he does in canon). (Also in non-requested characters, Jonathan/Dracula, but only pre-canon Jonathan/Mina, although Mina clearly still has feelings for him, so references to it are fine - I just find it hard to imagine them working things out afterwards, given what happens.)
Pre-canon - Van Helsing clearly has a history with supernatural stuff (although not vampires, but enough that Dracula clearly knows quite a bit about him already) - Van Helsing's earlier adventures (maybe involving an oblivious Dr Seward in some way) would be cool. Also Mina/Lucy (after all, Mina says Lucy was as she was in life, after their graveyard encounter; I am totally willing to believe in pre-canon femslash <3). And John's no doubt clueless courtship of Lucy; how did that go? Clearly, the set-up isn't quite the same as the book, so feel free to explore the differences in any way you like.
Canon - missing Mina/Lucy scenes (after all, where did Lucy go out of the crypt that night when Van Helsing and Dr Seward were waiting for her, eh?); Mina getting to do more (I had a marvellous AU fic on this premise last year, but if you can come up with a variation on that theme, I'm happy), or Mina/Lucy/John, or Van Helsing and the "knowledge that he wants, more than life itself!" as Dracula puts it, and I'm always up for missing scenes with canons I love anyway.
Post-Canon - What happens next? The ending is highly ambiguous! I think I would prefer Mina to defeat the vampiric influence, but I could be persuaded to the other way, especially if it was a light-hearted take of some kind. But Mina fighting free with the help of Van Helsing and John, with bonus Mina/John if possible. (I realise that Dr Seward is a fainty snowflake with a fake moustache, but I ship it a lot anyway. He's not stupid, his instincts are right, and he's concerned for other people, even if he does have a crumbling gothic wing in his nice late-Victorian asylum, for reasons unknown. Also Mina is the capable sort who can cope with fainty gents.)
Could Mina use/control the vampiric powers? Is that possible? (Again, with the differences from the book, we don't know, and I like that.) Will Dracula reappear as usual? Or maybe if they can get over this, then they investigate other things together? (I would read a whole novel series of Mina & Van Helsing battling the supernatural in late Victorian England while Dr Seward does his best to help, probably in between protesting a lot and probably fainting.)
There is nobody in the adaptation I don't like, though, and am more than happy to see any other characters you'd wish to include, so please don't worry if you want to involve anyone else. Given the nature of canon, I don't mind character death here - generally you may feel free to sacrifice anyone except Mina or John.
I love the supernatural aspect, so I mostly prefer canon-setting, but I would not say no to an AU if you had a particularly fun idea! I also requested this last year, so if you want to check out that letter for any different prompts, that's fine.
Sapphire and Steel
Silver
I love Silver, as will become obvious if you poke about anywhere on my AO3 account or here on Dreamwidth, so pretty much anything you can write me will be adored.
Silver on assignment, alone, with any Elements, in any crossover, at any point in time and space is fine. Probably I'd prefer something other than post A6 fic this time round, as I've both read and received some excellent ones, but, on the other hand, every S&S author has post A6 fic in them, and I would never stand in the way of yours, especially if you have something good in mind for Silver!
I love Elements (or whatever you prefer to call them) - I love the mysterious nature of them, how they attract and repel and interact, and their strange abilities and distinct characters. I do very much love Sapphire and Steel themselves, of course. I just love Silver that little bit more! Feel free to use any established Elements, either from the show or the audios (I haven't 'met' Ruby yet, but know Gold as well as Lead), those mentioned (Mercury, Copper, Jet) or come up with your own, as well as obviously Sapphire and Steel. (I'd say the periodical table is your oyster, but then again it's not as if you'd find Sapphire or Steel on it, so...) How is he on assignment with other Elements? Or any unseen Assignments with Sapphire and Steel? Pre-canon assignments with Sapphire, since they seem to go way back. (Did he also annoy Steel separately in previous centuries?) What has he been doing to annoy Copper? (As Lead mentions in A1.)
I ship Silver, at least in passing, with everyone and everything from other Elements to probably a smart kettle. I don't, however, OTP him with anyone but Sapphire and Steel - Sapphire/Silver/Steel is the first and only beautiful inhuman OT3 of my heart. I love the weird ways in which they are intimate and also see each other as mysteries, and how effective they are together (so effective, canon seems to say, that on teaming up, Transient Beings have to try and step in to put them all out of action), which seems to be maybe the elemental ideal to me. I don't particularly want them having human sex (well, Sapphire and Silver no doubt would for the hell of it/curiosity/the lols, but can Steel even?), but I love all the intimacy of touch and telepathy and flirting that goes on between all three of them, and ship all corners of the OT3. But Silver is very shippable and I also love stuff where he has reason (or time to spare and an appreciation of someone else's shininess) to flirt with/get shippy with a human or sentient machines or whatever.
But it's a weird fandom and one of the pleasures of it is how everyone interprets it differently, so please just have fun, give me some more Silver with whoever you choose & avoid my fandom specific DNW, which is the fanon that Silver is evil/working with the Transients. (It's a rarity, but it is the nearest thing to a trigger I have. It's an interesting theory! I just can't contemplate it without ridiculous unhappiness.)
In general with this fandom, I love the inhuman nature of 'Elements,' so please don't feel the need to make them too human - exploring more of them as they are in canon, and the hints that are dropped is lovely. (I don't think I would want an AU in this fandom, either, for similar reasons: I'm so in love with the mystery that is canon.)
The Shadow of the Tower
Henry VII
My request here is simple: more of this version of Henry, please! He is such an odd mix of things, both sympathetic and chilling by turns as he disintegrates across the series, and I find him fascinating. Anything you want to write will be lovely - pre-canon, missing scenes/years, post-canon, AU (whether canon or other setting). His interactions with everybody else are always interesting, so include anyone else you'd like (in-series, or from history).
I nominated Elizabeth of York, Margaret Beaufort, and the Earl of Lincoln as three people who have obviously interesting relationships with Henry, if 'bring in anybody' is too wide! I like SotT's Elizabeth/Henry - flawed, I know, but there are a lot of intriguing things that go unspoken here, as well as all the compromises and strain of that, which could be pulled out), and hurt/comfort potential on both sides, and there's not enough of Elizabeth in the series. I ship it; I didn't mean to, but I do. (I blame the BBC.) There's also not enough of Margaret Beaufort, and I like Marigold Sharman's Margaret with her everything-is-fine front that is actually very brittle, and all her similarities to Henry. Both she and Elizabeth show the strains of loving Henry, which is also an interesting approach. (Any Elizabeth, Henry & Margaret interactions are great, too.) Lincoln also seems to have an interesting relationship with Henry - first Lincoln was promised what should be Henry's (his mothers lands and money) and then Henry took everything that was promised to Lincoln (that, and the country), while Lincoln is left at the end proclaiming wildly that Henry Tudor is in his very heart. Clearly, there should be fic.
But there are so many characters who flit in and out, often all too briefly - so feel free pick out any of them you want to interact with Henry. (Thomas Stanley, Jasper, Warwick, Oxford, Morton, Catherine Gordon, Perkin Warbeck, Fox, Dudley, or any historical characters who didn't make it into the series, and you'd like to use.)
Maybe write about another conspiracy/rebellion/traitor, a story built around a line from Henry's account books and the more unexpected people he gave money to (this is the basis for some of the episodes) - I found some listed in one of the history books, if they might inspire you: "a man wrongfully arrested, a woman with child, children singing for him in a garden, a Jewess for her marriage, the liberating of prisoners and for 'a little fair maiden that danceth'."
Or explore historical events that are only mentioned in passing in the show, or skipped. Or explore other throwaway lines etc. - what incident back in Flanders are Morton and Henry talking about in episode 9? In what way does Elizabeth regard loving Henry as her weakness? (It's not only comfits, clearly.) Follow up on the moment when Henry tells Margaret that she hasn't always helped him. Or anything else from the serial that inspires you.
Canon AUs - what if Margaret had managed to arrange for Henry to come home? Would things have ended better without all the battles? Or what if one of the other conspiracies had succeeded? (What on earth would Lambert or this Perkin have done? TRAGEDY all round, I should think. And probably irony; it's the 1970s BBC.) Or come up with an Other Setting AU and have cardboard spaceships or a coffee shop! (I love the historical setting, but I also love historical fandoms translated into AUs!)
Also bonus random crossover idea: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell actually refs events involving Henry VII - this version of Henry dealing with them or any AU magic scenarios could be pretty amazing.
I have requested this last year and you can see my letter here if you'd like. (I'm pretty sure to still want most of those prompts too, unless I've said otherwise above.) Honestly, anything for this fandom and this Henry will definitely count as a Yuletide miracle and make me ridiculously happy, so have at it.
If for any reason you want to know how to pick up these fandoms, here's the info:
Daughters of Mannerling by MC Beaton (or Marion Chesney) is a slight six-book Regency romance series. Don't be put off by the six books - they really are very slight and easy and you wouldn't have to read all of them to get the idea of Mannerling. (I recommend the last two or three if you can only spare time for some, as Mannerling's behaviour tends to get more extreme as the series progresses.) They seem to be easily available in libraries in both the UK and the US and hopefully elsewhere. I made a pimping post entry here (but I think I just said pretty much the same things).
The 1968 Dracula is a c.80 minute feature-length (b&w) British TV adaptation of the novel. It is very much old-style cardboard TV, but it's short, contains a lot of interesting ideas and canon 60s femslash, and is currently available on YT. I gave details and links at the fandom pimping post. (So far it seems to be only out on R2 DVD as part of the Mystery and Imagination anthology.)
The next shortest is also pure cardboard/theatrical telly, The Shadow of the Tower, a 13x 50 min serial (BBC 1972). However, it's up on YT and available on DVD in R1 and 2, and can usually be obtained fairly cheaply second hand (and sometimes even found in libraries in the US). Details here at the pimping post.
Department S and Sapphire and Steel are both longer - S&S is a 1979-1981 ITV series about mysterious operatives who solve weird problems with time (played by the fabulous Joanna Lumley and David McCallum, while David Colling's Silver turns up in Assignments 3 and 6; Assignment 1 has Val Pringle as Lead; Copper, Jet, and Mercury are all mentioned in passing). It is out on DVD in various regions and currently up on YT (by so many people I'll leave you to search out your own preferred versions) and comes in the shape of six Assignments (think Classic Who serials) with 4-8x 25min episdes making up each Assignment. It's weird and slow, but it is one of the most unusual and amazing pieces of telly SF ever made.
Department S (1968) was an ITC film serial that ran for 28 episodes. It is out on DVD but I haven't currently found it up on YT. Further info at the pimping post
And that, dear author, is more than enough from me! So, thank you, best of luck, and I hope you have a good Yuletide and I look forward to seeing whatever you write for me.
Crossposted from Dreamwidth. Please click through to comment. -- Current comments:
Hello and welcome! I hope this letter will be helpful, but I know some prefer long letters (like me) and some short (in which case, I'm sorry, dear, author; I've never yet been able to manage a concise Yule-letter). But tl;dr: I like an awful lot of things, sometimes very different things in different contexts, I love these fandoms very much, and I'll enjoy most things that you write for my chosen characters in them. As long as you avoid my few hard and fast DNWs, it'll be fine. I very much hope you have fun writing for me.
That said, here is the long version...
Likes: Humour, missing adventures, friendship, hurt/comfort, fantasy, history, mysteries, ghosts, casefic, crossovers, banter, trope subversion, trapped together tropes, fake marriages/marriage of conveniences, forced to work together, five times, dancing, epistolary, apocalypses, plot, spies, found families, winning through hard times to happy endings, comedy of manners, aliens made them do it etc. (In shippy things I tend to prefer implicit/lead-ins to explicit scenes - emotions, touch/sensation, first times, historical costumes & undressing, kissing, emotions conveyed by things other than words, balancing each other out etc.)
I enjoy AUs, but see the individual request prompts for the fandoms I'm more open to receiving them in. I am fine with gen/het/femslash/slash/poly in general, though please stick to relationships requested below (though acknowledgement of canonical relationships is fine).
DNW: graphic descriptions of violence/gore, incest, (non-canonical) rape, PWP explicit pr0n, over-eating/greed.
In general I am less keen on: pregnancy, kidfic, (non-canonical) tragic endings, emphasis on real medical condictions (unless canon), issuefic, fixit fic, non-canonical character death. (But as you will see from my likes and requests, I like some of these sometimes, so don't worry too much - see the specific fandom requests below.)
Feel free to engage in any Yuletide 'stalking' as you please. A lot of my fannish entries here are public anyway. I have a dear author tag here, where you will find previous exchange letters. My fic is here on AO3 and you can check my recs tag here (or see my reccing stints on Calufrax (DW-only) and gensplosion) if you think any of that might help. But mostly: good luck, and don't worry - I'm looking forward to reading whatever you come up with!
Daughters of Mannerling - M C Beaton
Mannerling
So, I was just casually reading another MC Beaton Regency romance series, and then it turned out that the stately house was possessed/evil and drove everyone to desperate acts to possess it. This is the kind of crack I am here for, and I want to know more than a slight romance series can tell me about Mannerling.
(If you don't know it, the books are pretty light, easy to speed through the whole lot in a day or two, let alone just one of them, which would be pretty much sufficient to get the gist. Picture Pemberly but EVIL and there you have it.)
How did Mannerling wind up that way? Is it merely so in love with its own perfect proportions and immaculate landscaping, it just happened? Built on a cursed burial site, or was someone murdered back in the day? Were the previous (if any) grand houses there equally evil? What happened to previous generations?
Or, Mannerling: the next generation, or a suitable period crossover. What happens next? What would happen if it ran up against a character too narcissitic to be affected by it? Does it attract more governesses to thwart it as the century progresses? Or is it later investigated by one of those many (many) late 19th detectives? Is it related to Honeysuckle Cottage? Who knows? When the 20th C rolls around, is it the inevitable location for a Golden Age murder houseparty?
Or later still - does it get burned to the ground? What happens when the land is purchased for a new housing development, or does it become the hill that people die on? Does it survive and get used for a gov't department with the highest casualty rate in the country? Do the National Trust/English Heritage have to deal with it? Does one of those endless 60s/70s government agencies investigate it, or must it be ultimately stopped by a higher power?
The above are just some of my wild ideas - please let them be inspirations if needed, not restrictions if not! The only thing I'd add here is that I'm not into too much graphic/bleak horror/violence (although I'd be fine with a more Gothic/serious approach to Mannerling, as long as at least one or two of the next victims escape its clutches - this letter includes Dracula, that is about my exact horror limitation, if that helps). It also seems like a good possiblity for epistolary fic, too. I am fine with Mannerling being reduced to ashes or rubble at any point, but only after more sinister goings-on, of course.
I'd be happy with a crossover - it seems like a request that could lend itself to one, if you felt that way inclined. My other requested fandoms would all fit, I think (SotT aside, unless, I suppose, the dark origins of Mannerling lie in Henry's reign! it could be!), but also, from the tagset: Adam Adamant Lives!, The Avengers, Jonathan Creek, New Tricks, The Mummy Series, any Heyers or Austens (what would Catherine make of Mannerling? Or the characters from The Talisman Ring? Would The Grand Sophy flatten it?), or a problem for Miss Marple, Alleyn, or Poirot. (But just look over my tags/interests if you've got any ideas of your own - any time I make a list like this, I miss at least six obvious things, no matter what I do!)
But this is very much a do what you will request: I am fascinated and entertained by the mere possibility of what someone might make of it for Yuletide. Please, have fun with it and I'm sure I will love the results.
Department S
Annabelle Hirst, Stewart Sullivan, Jason King, Sir Curtis Seretse
Missing scenes, OT3ishness (platonic or shippy), casefic, banter, Mark Caine meta/humour - all would be lovely here.
Annabelle, Stewart and Jason are a great trio, with their different abilities balancing each other out - all very competent and professional, but in completely different ways & all relying on each other and secretly caring very much, despite all the banter. Anything with them interacting would be adored, whether on a case, hanging out, or even that one actual OT3 time they don't talk about because Reasons, or Stewart/Annabelle shippiness + Jason, whatever! Sir Curtis is also great, and I love how much he cares about all three of his operatives (no matter how he keeps assuring them that isn't the case). I do want him included, whether only his usual brief appearances, or letting him join in the investigation (as he does in that art theft episode). If I have a favourite, it's probably Annabelle, but it's the combination of all three/four here that's just so perfect and that's what I want more of: Department S together and doing what they do best. <3
I love the added meta-humour edge and in-jokes that the Mark Caine series provides and all the references to the books we get. Maybe you could come up with an adventure contrasted with Jason's fictionalised version?
Or what if one of their out-there 'Mary Celeste' type problems actually turned out to be something supernatural just once? (I'm sure they'd cope brilliantly! If they could believe it...)
Dracula (TV 1968
Lucy Weston, Mina Harker, John Seward, Abraham Van Helsing
I've had fic for this for the last two years, and they were both very different and great. So I told myself I shouldn't asking for it again, but let's face it, if it's in the tagset, how can I resist? When I said I wanted all the fic, I meant it.
You don't necessarily need to include all the requested characters, especially since canon events could make that difficult. Hopefully, the prompts below should provide some diffferent combinations and suggestions.
I ship Lucy/Mina, Mina/John, Mina/John/Lucy and some John/Lucy, and enjoy Van Helsing & John (though I would obviously be happy to see Van Helsing get to interact with Mina or Lucy more than he does in canon). (Also in non-requested characters, Jonathan/Dracula, but only pre-canon Jonathan/Mina, although Mina clearly still has feelings for him, so references to it are fine - I just find it hard to imagine them working things out afterwards, given what happens.)
Pre-canon - Van Helsing clearly has a history with supernatural stuff (although not vampires, but enough that Dracula clearly knows quite a bit about him already) - Van Helsing's earlier adventures (maybe involving an oblivious Dr Seward in some way) would be cool. Also Mina/Lucy (after all, Mina says Lucy was as she was in life, after their graveyard encounter; I am totally willing to believe in pre-canon femslash <3). And John's no doubt clueless courtship of Lucy; how did that go? Clearly, the set-up isn't quite the same as the book, so feel free to explore the differences in any way you like.
Canon - missing Mina/Lucy scenes (after all, where did Lucy go out of the crypt that night when Van Helsing and Dr Seward were waiting for her, eh?); Mina getting to do more (I had a marvellous AU fic on this premise last year, but if you can come up with a variation on that theme, I'm happy), or Mina/Lucy/John, or Van Helsing and the "knowledge that he wants, more than life itself!" as Dracula puts it, and I'm always up for missing scenes with canons I love anyway.
Post-Canon - What happens next? The ending is highly ambiguous! I think I would prefer Mina to defeat the vampiric influence, but I could be persuaded to the other way, especially if it was a light-hearted take of some kind. But Mina fighting free with the help of Van Helsing and John, with bonus Mina/John if possible. (I realise that Dr Seward is a fainty snowflake with a fake moustache, but I ship it a lot anyway. He's not stupid, his instincts are right, and he's concerned for other people, even if he does have a crumbling gothic wing in his nice late-Victorian asylum, for reasons unknown. Also Mina is the capable sort who can cope with fainty gents.)
Could Mina use/control the vampiric powers? Is that possible? (Again, with the differences from the book, we don't know, and I like that.) Will Dracula reappear as usual? Or maybe if they can get over this, then they investigate other things together? (I would read a whole novel series of Mina & Van Helsing battling the supernatural in late Victorian England while Dr Seward does his best to help, probably in between protesting a lot and probably fainting.)
There is nobody in the adaptation I don't like, though, and am more than happy to see any other characters you'd wish to include, so please don't worry if you want to involve anyone else. Given the nature of canon, I don't mind character death here - generally you may feel free to sacrifice anyone except Mina or John.
I love the supernatural aspect, so I mostly prefer canon-setting, but I would not say no to an AU if you had a particularly fun idea! I also requested this last year, so if you want to check out that letter for any different prompts, that's fine.
Sapphire and Steel
Silver
I love Silver, as will become obvious if you poke about anywhere on my AO3 account or here on Dreamwidth, so pretty much anything you can write me will be adored.
Silver on assignment, alone, with any Elements, in any crossover, at any point in time and space is fine. Probably I'd prefer something other than post A6 fic this time round, as I've both read and received some excellent ones, but, on the other hand, every S&S author has post A6 fic in them, and I would never stand in the way of yours, especially if you have something good in mind for Silver!
I love Elements (or whatever you prefer to call them) - I love the mysterious nature of them, how they attract and repel and interact, and their strange abilities and distinct characters. I do very much love Sapphire and Steel themselves, of course. I just love Silver that little bit more! Feel free to use any established Elements, either from the show or the audios (I haven't 'met' Ruby yet, but know Gold as well as Lead), those mentioned (Mercury, Copper, Jet) or come up with your own, as well as obviously Sapphire and Steel. (I'd say the periodical table is your oyster, but then again it's not as if you'd find Sapphire or Steel on it, so...) How is he on assignment with other Elements? Or any unseen Assignments with Sapphire and Steel? Pre-canon assignments with Sapphire, since they seem to go way back. (Did he also annoy Steel separately in previous centuries?) What has he been doing to annoy Copper? (As Lead mentions in A1.)
I ship Silver, at least in passing, with everyone and everything from other Elements to probably a smart kettle. I don't, however, OTP him with anyone but Sapphire and Steel - Sapphire/Silver/Steel is the first and only beautiful inhuman OT3 of my heart. I love the weird ways in which they are intimate and also see each other as mysteries, and how effective they are together (so effective, canon seems to say, that on teaming up, Transient Beings have to try and step in to put them all out of action), which seems to be maybe the elemental ideal to me. I don't particularly want them having human sex (well, Sapphire and Silver no doubt would for the hell of it/curiosity/the lols, but can Steel even?), but I love all the intimacy of touch and telepathy and flirting that goes on between all three of them, and ship all corners of the OT3. But Silver is very shippable and I also love stuff where he has reason (or time to spare and an appreciation of someone else's shininess) to flirt with/get shippy with a human or sentient machines or whatever.
But it's a weird fandom and one of the pleasures of it is how everyone interprets it differently, so please just have fun, give me some more Silver with whoever you choose & avoid my fandom specific DNW, which is the fanon that Silver is evil/working with the Transients. (It's a rarity, but it is the nearest thing to a trigger I have. It's an interesting theory! I just can't contemplate it without ridiculous unhappiness.)
In general with this fandom, I love the inhuman nature of 'Elements,' so please don't feel the need to make them too human - exploring more of them as they are in canon, and the hints that are dropped is lovely. (I don't think I would want an AU in this fandom, either, for similar reasons: I'm so in love with the mystery that is canon.)
The Shadow of the Tower
Henry VII
My request here is simple: more of this version of Henry, please! He is such an odd mix of things, both sympathetic and chilling by turns as he disintegrates across the series, and I find him fascinating. Anything you want to write will be lovely - pre-canon, missing scenes/years, post-canon, AU (whether canon or other setting). His interactions with everybody else are always interesting, so include anyone else you'd like (in-series, or from history).
I nominated Elizabeth of York, Margaret Beaufort, and the Earl of Lincoln as three people who have obviously interesting relationships with Henry, if 'bring in anybody' is too wide! I like SotT's Elizabeth/Henry - flawed, I know, but there are a lot of intriguing things that go unspoken here, as well as all the compromises and strain of that, which could be pulled out), and hurt/comfort potential on both sides, and there's not enough of Elizabeth in the series. I ship it; I didn't mean to, but I do. (I blame the BBC.) There's also not enough of Margaret Beaufort, and I like Marigold Sharman's Margaret with her everything-is-fine front that is actually very brittle, and all her similarities to Henry. Both she and Elizabeth show the strains of loving Henry, which is also an interesting approach. (Any Elizabeth, Henry & Margaret interactions are great, too.) Lincoln also seems to have an interesting relationship with Henry - first Lincoln was promised what should be Henry's (his mothers lands and money) and then Henry took everything that was promised to Lincoln (that, and the country), while Lincoln is left at the end proclaiming wildly that Henry Tudor is in his very heart. Clearly, there should be fic.
But there are so many characters who flit in and out, often all too briefly - so feel free pick out any of them you want to interact with Henry. (Thomas Stanley, Jasper, Warwick, Oxford, Morton, Catherine Gordon, Perkin Warbeck, Fox, Dudley, or any historical characters who didn't make it into the series, and you'd like to use.)
Maybe write about another conspiracy/rebellion/traitor, a story built around a line from Henry's account books and the more unexpected people he gave money to (this is the basis for some of the episodes) - I found some listed in one of the history books, if they might inspire you: "a man wrongfully arrested, a woman with child, children singing for him in a garden, a Jewess for her marriage, the liberating of prisoners and for 'a little fair maiden that danceth'."
Or explore historical events that are only mentioned in passing in the show, or skipped. Or explore other throwaway lines etc. - what incident back in Flanders are Morton and Henry talking about in episode 9? In what way does Elizabeth regard loving Henry as her weakness? (It's not only comfits, clearly.) Follow up on the moment when Henry tells Margaret that she hasn't always helped him. Or anything else from the serial that inspires you.
Canon AUs - what if Margaret had managed to arrange for Henry to come home? Would things have ended better without all the battles? Or what if one of the other conspiracies had succeeded? (What on earth would Lambert or this Perkin have done? TRAGEDY all round, I should think. And probably irony; it's the 1970s BBC.) Or come up with an Other Setting AU and have cardboard spaceships or a coffee shop! (I love the historical setting, but I also love historical fandoms translated into AUs!)
Also bonus random crossover idea: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell actually refs events involving Henry VII - this version of Henry dealing with them or any AU magic scenarios could be pretty amazing.
I have requested this last year and you can see my letter here if you'd like. (I'm pretty sure to still want most of those prompts too, unless I've said otherwise above.) Honestly, anything for this fandom and this Henry will definitely count as a Yuletide miracle and make me ridiculously happy, so have at it.
If for any reason you want to know how to pick up these fandoms, here's the info:
Daughters of Mannerling by MC Beaton (or Marion Chesney) is a slight six-book Regency romance series. Don't be put off by the six books - they really are very slight and easy and you wouldn't have to read all of them to get the idea of Mannerling. (I recommend the last two or three if you can only spare time for some, as Mannerling's behaviour tends to get more extreme as the series progresses.) They seem to be easily available in libraries in both the UK and the US and hopefully elsewhere. I made a pimping post entry here (but I think I just said pretty much the same things).
The 1968 Dracula is a c.80 minute feature-length (b&w) British TV adaptation of the novel. It is very much old-style cardboard TV, but it's short, contains a lot of interesting ideas and canon 60s femslash, and is currently available on YT. I gave details and links at the fandom pimping post. (So far it seems to be only out on R2 DVD as part of the Mystery and Imagination anthology.)
The next shortest is also pure cardboard/theatrical telly, The Shadow of the Tower, a 13x 50 min serial (BBC 1972). However, it's up on YT and available on DVD in R1 and 2, and can usually be obtained fairly cheaply second hand (and sometimes even found in libraries in the US). Details here at the pimping post.
Department S and Sapphire and Steel are both longer - S&S is a 1979-1981 ITV series about mysterious operatives who solve weird problems with time (played by the fabulous Joanna Lumley and David McCallum, while David Colling's Silver turns up in Assignments 3 and 6; Assignment 1 has Val Pringle as Lead; Copper, Jet, and Mercury are all mentioned in passing). It is out on DVD in various regions and currently up on YT (by so many people I'll leave you to search out your own preferred versions) and comes in the shape of six Assignments (think Classic Who serials) with 4-8x 25min episdes making up each Assignment. It's weird and slow, but it is one of the most unusual and amazing pieces of telly SF ever made.
Department S (1968) was an ITC film serial that ran for 28 episodes. It is out on DVD but I haven't currently found it up on YT. Further info at the pimping post
And that, dear author, is more than enough from me! So, thank you, best of luck, and I hope you have a good Yuletide and I look forward to seeing whatever you write for me.
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