Dear Yuletide Writer,
Thank you very much for choosing one of my fandoms - I love each and every one of them to a ridiculous degree and I'm looking forward to seeing what you'll write! Prompts here are just suggestions - I'm pretty flexible about most things so I hope you feel free to write what makes you inspired. Happy Yuletide!
General Notes
- Not a big fan of the "rocks fall, everyone dies" ending but feel free to add non-excessive angst when needed. So if a character would logically be upset in a situation, cool. If the fic's nothing but people being sad and angsty and everything ends horribly without some bit of hope, it's not going to be something I'm really into.
- I love humor in stories, especially the darker forms of comedy, but no crack fic please.
- I don't have very strong preferences about narrative perspective or styles, except for not really liking second person POV.
- I enjoy canon, but I appreciate AUs quite a bit - all of my requests this year have room to play around in.
DNWs:
- Permanent nominated character death - characters can be near death or mistakenly thought dead, but nothing that sticks. Also, death of characters not nominated is fine - that includes characters in the tagset that I didn't choose.
- No animal harm, extreme underage, bodily fluids (blood is fine).
- No unrequested pairings involving nominated characters. I'm fine with minor characters being paired off (including canon parents of characters) and I'll note in each fandom where canon pairings involving the nominated characters are cool. Please, though, if you choose to not write ship fic in the fandoms where I've given prompts for it, I'd rather not have them in in relationships with other characters/OCs.
Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
Characters: Edmond Dantès (Count of Monte Cristo (2002)) Albert Mondego (Count of Monte Cristo (2002))
This is the movie that you scream REVENGE! at the screen because you got drunk with your best friend at her house and you guys decided to go see this because you both kind of love costume movies and hey, it's got that one dude in it. This is the movie you rent the DVD of because you're pretty sure that Guy Pearce is actually drunk in the movie and did this movie always have so many chess metaphors? This is the movie you watch on TV every time it comes on because there's sword-fighting! Sword-fighting is awesome!
I love this movie because I love The Count of Monte Cristo in all its forms back since when I had to read it abridged in high school and ended up checking out the unabridged version to get more Napoleonic goodness. Then I watched the Gerard Depardieu version, which was pretty faithful, and then, joy of joys, this version came out. Is it true to the book? Hell, no. Is it a glorious masterpiece of over the top acting? Oh, yes. So anything that incorporates that wonderful blend of melodrama, action, and humor (some of it unintentional) would be great.
I'm asking for Edmond and Albert this time around, because I really would like a focus on their father-son relationship (that doesn't mean you have to pretend Mercedes doesn't exist or that she and Edmond don't have a relationship). I mean, Edmond goes from being an incredibly gullible sailor to a dude who took several levels in badass and uncounted levels in epic facial hair. Meanwhile, Albert seemed to have inherited his dad's gullibility because Fernand almost gets him to kill Edmond without really needing that much pushing. But hey, in the end, everything's forgiven because even though there's years of deceit, we need a happy ending and look, Fernand was a douchebag.
Prompts:
One of the things that got me about this was the ending - the last scene before the end is Edmond killing Fernand, Albert being held back from the fight by Jacopo, and Mercedes has been shot. Plenty of trauma to go around. Then we go to a cliff scene and everyone seems like they underwent some therapy because Mercedes is perfectly fine, Albert has clearly accepted his new dad, and Edmond's talking about love and forgiveness. So how did they get to that point? What kind of conversations did Edmond have with his son and how awkward did they get?
I also really enjoy thinking about alternate universes. Like what would have happened if Edmond had figured out about Albert before Mercedes told Fernand and how would that have changed his plans? Would he still have had him kidnapped? It's pretty clear Edmond likes him even before he realizes the truth.
Or what if Albert had been quicker on the uptake and Mercedes actually let him know the truth that Fernand wasn't his dad. Then this random stranger shows up, his mom starts getting moony-eyed and one plus one means oh, shit, that dead sailor dude/my dad is running around pretending to be a count. Well, time to help REVENGE!
The Frankenstein Chronicles
Characters: Daniel Hervey, John Marlott
This show got me and it got me good right at the end of the first season when John's waking up from being dead and Daniel's just gazing at him in adoration, like he doesn't care that John's been trying to foil his plans this entire season (whether he knew it or not), because this is the best thing he could have ever done in his life and oh, he's just so lovely and perfect and hey, I cured your venereal disease while I was at it too! He's just so happy about it and meanwhile John is naked and thinking “I hate my life.” It's just so beautiful.
So give me mad science and corpse detectives that can see ghosts and creepy supernatural mysteries with answers that seem to tie back to people meddling with life after and death and above all, John and Daniel and their connection as creator and creation. I really loved how John is definitely older than Daniel, and yet Daniel is the one that takes on the role of father in many respects, being the one that brought him back to life.
I haven't really mentioned Jemima - I'm definitely fine with her being in the picture, whether as a living sister or a dead memory/ghost that haunts the two of them, but I would like the focus (and any romantic interaction if you go that way) to be on the two of them.
Prompts:
John's a complete blank slate when he's brought back to life, which means he doesn't remember anything about the man who's smiling at him and holding him tight. And Daniel, for his part, decides why risk such a pristine creation by letting it ever go free?
John doesn't die to the gallows, but Daniel still gets a hold of him regardless - maybe John never investigates the murders, but does stumble into his clutches because of his disease. And Daniel isn't one to waste a good man.
I'd also love something where they've known each other for years - who knows how they met, but it means that when John realizes just what his old companion is up to, it hurts that much more. And Daniel, for his part, is deeply regretful and will definitely make it up to him. John just has to die first.
Kindred: The Embraced
Characters: Frank Kohanek, Julian Luna
Oh, when I saw this in the tagset, I went, holy crap, I have not thought of this series in forever. And then I immediately said, well, I clearly have to request this now. Because I may have been deeply disappointed when it was cancelled after eight episodes (I was so sad about Mark Frankel) and may have bought the entire series on videotape back then for an exorbitant price just so I could rewatch Frank and Julian having belligerent (sexual) tension over and over again.
I'm pretty sure that this was one of my first slash fandoms and I owe it all to the setup where Frank and Julian apparently both slept with the same vampire lady, who conveniently dies/disappears, just so the two of them can spend the rest of the time bickering about how much Frank really hates Julian, but will still drag vampire criminals into his hideout and just kind of chat with him. Likewise, it would be so much easier for Julian to just get mind wipe Frank, but you know, he made a promise to the dead vampire lady and anyhow Frank has some sort of resistant mind bullshit and oh my god, this was my Twilight!
So yeah, I really love Julian and Frank and their whole relationship and I would love something with the two of them. References to past relationships with Alexandra or Lillie are fine, although if Caitlin's involved, I'd really like her to be broken up with Julian, since I wasn't a huge fan of their pairing.
Prompts:
Maybe Frank gets into trouble with other vampires or maybe he gets mortally injured by something else, but however it happens, Julian has to turn Frank and now he has to contend with not only breaking his promise to Alexandra, but also a new fledgling that's pretty pissed at him.
Vampire hunters! Julian's in danger, and as much as Frank would love to see him taken down, it's not good for the city. Fine, maybe he saves his life and maybe now the two of them are hiding out together but it's just for the moment and if he's letting Julian feed, it's not because he really likes the guy or is getting turned on by the situation.
Or what if Alexandra was never in the picture to begin with and Frank stumbled onto the vampire world a different way? Is he still as resistant to vampiric powers? Does he get the Caitlin treatment where Julian just begins stalking him (just to make sure he doesn't know anything, it's not to protect him, why would you think that?)
Sneakers (1992)
Characters: Martin Bishop, Cosmo
"Martin and Cosmo's final confrontation, especially Cosmo's cries of "I don't expect just anybody to understand this, but I do expect YOU to understand this!", and his plaintive pleading at the end of "Don't go. Don't go." positively smacks of Cosmo's unrequited love for Marty."
I never understood why I loved this movie so much when I was younger until I read this TV Tropes entry and something clicked in my brain. Ah, I thought. I was shipping them even back then. Because yeah, whether you view it as jilted ex-lover or just brokenhearted best friend, it's pretty clear Cosmo's torn between being furious at Martin for his perceived abandonment and his desire to work with him again as partners. There are so many points where his plans would have worked so much better if he had just killed Martin and yet he can't even pull the trigger at the end when he's got him dead to rights. (Okay, yeah, he did tell that guy to kill his friend, but I have to believe he knew Martin would get out of it because he knows him.)
I'd really like something set in the present to post-movie part - their backstory is tragic and sets up the conflict well, but I like them as older men, having to deal with perceived betrayals, double crosses, and nebulous plans. Plus, Redford and Kingsley have such chemistry and their scene when they first meet up after years apart? Oh, that's good stuff.
Martin's relationship with Liz is fine to reference, but if it's included, I'd like it to be one isn't a romantic one (ex-lovers to platonic best friends now). I like her and I think they had some fun scenes, but I really want the focus to be on Martin and Cosmo.
Prompts:
It seems the movie leaves a couple of big plot points dangling at the end - Cosmo's still out there with the Mafia and Martin and the gang are kind of being public with their hacking. What happens when people do the math and Martin has to go on the run from multiple people with Cosmo, who may or may not also be on the run?
I like the ending, but it's a little unrealistically happy - what if it's just a dream and Martin wakes up to Cosmo scowling at him because either he fell off the roof at the climax or Cosmo really did shoot him and then immediately regretted it (he totally spent day and night at Martin's bedside until he woke up but denies it). I would also not be averse to Martin realizing, wait a second, aren't I supposed to be in a hospital and Cosmo looking shady and maybe he might have kidnapped him, but it's fine because the feds were looking for you anyhow and they can't be allowed to get their hands on you.
Martin doesn't refuse Cosmo the first time he asks him to join him, or Cosmo decides that he'll have Martin working with him no matter what cost (or threat/blackmail). How do they work together, considering Martin willingly does at the end something similar (even if it's small scale) to what Cosmo wanted all along?