Dear Yuletide Writer
Dear Yuletide Writer,
I'm happy and grateful you're going to write a story for me. We must share at least one fandom, and I hope you'll have fun writing in it. The ideas in my requests are just that: ideas. If you feel inspired by another direction of story altogether, go for it, as long as it features the characters I requested.
General likes and dislikes: pretty ordinary. I don't like character bashing. (Or the bashing of a relationship in favour of another, but that hardly applies with my requests.) Not to be confused with whitewashing; some of the characters I asked so have canonically done some pretty apalling things, and you don't have to pretend they didn't, or that it was all someone else's fault, just because I love them. As long as they come across as three dimensional people with flaws and strengths, I'll be content.
Quiet character exploration or plotty tale, gen or slash/het/any combination thereof, humor or dark fic, canon or AU, it's all good, though unless you're one of those awesomely talented people who can write characterisation via sex, I'd prefer a story that's more than a PWP.
Now, as to individual requests:
The Americans
Claudia fascinates me. Anything focused on her would make me happy, be it backstory (for example young Claudia at Stalingrad - only please don't make it all about Zukhov), how she became one of the KGB top handlers, what she did between seasons (becoming Emmett and Leanne's handler, maybe?), s1 or s2 interaction with Elizabeth and Philip, future fic - anything, as long as it's Claudia centric and explores her character. If you want to go for crossovers and have her run into Harry from Spooks or George Smiley or, why not, James Bond, be my guest! Anything Claudia-centric would be lovely.
Alternatively: Charles knows Philip's primary alias and knows him sans disguise; he probably was Philip's first recruit, as Gregory was Elizabeth's. There's a lot of tension but also a lot of mutual intimate knowledge there (note that Charles is the sole character to whom Philip says, in as many words, how sick he's become of killing and that he doesn't even know whether there's a point). A story that explores their relationship would be great. How did it start? How come Charles - alcoholic and adrenaline junkie - knows so much about Philip and hasn't slipped up yet (or been killed for being a security risk)? I'm fine with either gen or slash, if that's how you choose to go, but if the later, please give me a bit more than just a PWP.
Penny Dreadful
The Vanessa and Malcolm relationship (write it Vanessa & Malcolm or Vanessa/Malcolm, I'm good either way) is my primary source of fascination on the show, so anything dealing with its messed up intensity and glory in detail would make me happy. Since the show left it open when Malcolm's relationship with Vanessa's mother started: if you do want to make him Vanessa's biological father, that's also fine with me. (It's not how I interpret the show, because Malcolm choosing Vanessa in the end has more meaning to me if he's not bound to her biologically but by choice, but it's entirely possible and could be interesting to explore.) The show never told us whetherr Vanessa is financially independent, but assuming her father is as dead as her mother, she probably has her own money, inherited from them. Now that Mina is gone, there is no reason for her to stay with Malcolm other than her own wishes. Does she consider alternatives? What, in the end, makes her stay?
Sembene: shamefully underexplored (yet, I hope for better in the future) on the show, so any backstory you can come up with, or things he experiences during s1 when off screen, would be fine by me. If you focus on his relationship with Malcolm: I assume there's more to it than a life saving, otherwise I can't see Sembene bothering, and while Malcolm is a terrible person (and knows it), he must have done non-destructive things in Africa as well for Sembene - who doesn't strike me as Stockholme'd - to live and work with him.
Or: at the end of the season, Vanessa jokes about asking the boys to celebrate Christmas with them. My focus aside, I love the entire ensemble. Go wild with A Penny Dreadful Christmas, complete with Victor and Ethan wrecking their minds trying to come up with suitable presents for the Murray/Ives household, Caliban losing his virginity to Dorian Gray (because Dorian is into new experiences and is mostly immortal; it would solve Caliban's mating problem at least for a one night stand) as a Christmas treat, and a walking Mummy showing up as an invited Christmas guest (because that's the Penny Dreadful creature still missing). Or, you know, anything else you can come up with. I'm bound to love all.
15th Century RPF
It's my cracky Yuletide idea of the year: Margaret Beaufort meets Rodrigo Borgia. Just how this could happen (does she make a pilgrimage to Rome in between scheming? Does a younger Cardinal Borgia visit France to collect votes for the next papal election and Margaret happens to be there looking for Lancastrian allies persuadable to the Tudor cause?) is up to your discretion, also, the when. The characters could be either strictly your own interpretation of their historical selves or based on other media (say, The White Queen's "I wanted to be a saint" Margaret meeting Jeremy Irons! Rodrigo (who knows something about the frustrations of people who shall remain Savonarola having visions from God while he does not), or an AU where there're both heads of Mafia crime families or head space ships, I don't care as long as I can recognize them by more than name. I'd be happy with either. Depending on just when this encounter takes place, Vannozza or Elizabeth of York showing up as well would be a bonus, since I'm fond of either lady, but is not a necessity, as long as you pull off a Margaret-meets-Rodrigo encounter.
I'd imagine she'd be appalled (someone cheerfully indulging his illegitimate children, not even calling them nieces and nephews, makes Pope while no one will acknowledge her candidacy for sainthood when she had to give up her far too early conceived and lost son to a variety of guardians) but also intrrigued by the possibilities (maybe an excommunication for the Yorkists...). He'd be somewhere between appalled (not another self appointed power hungry mystic!) and intrigued (smart, tough women capable of defeating the odds with a sense of strategy are so his type, see also: Vannozza). But if you have other ideas: go for them! It's so outrageously unlikely an encounter that anything goes.
Bates Motel
Norma, messed-up, doomed but so alive Norma is my favourite on this show. So any story exploring her would be welcome, from whichever angle. Some suggestions (which of course are optional): her relationship with Emma through both seasons (now Emma is much more emotionally invested in both Norma and Norman than they are in her, but I think Norma does like Emma; the scene where Emma asks her about first time sex and Norma swallows down her own bad memories to give Emma friendly and encouraging advice is one of my favourites in s2). Or: Norma and Dylan, aka the other spectacularly intense and spectacularly messed up mother/son relationship on the show. At the end of s2, they're in a better place (for now), and Dylan has started to believe Norma loves him, but I'd like the fact that he instinctively believed Caleb over her when the truth about his parentage came out addressed. (If you want to tackle the entire backstory of Norma's childhood and adolescence - kudos to you!) Or: Norma and Alex Romero. There's chemistry there, and they can be both hilarious and intense together. But Romero is aware how emotionally unstable she is. And he himself is Sheriff in a drug dealer town who lives by compromise (and used to be best buddies with the creep who raped her in the pilot). So, even leaving her Psycho-ordained fate aside, they're hardly destined for a happily ever after. But it's still an against the odd friendship/flirtation that could turn into more even if they both know better...
As I said, just some ideas. I haven't mentioned Norman yet, not because I don't appreciate the character, and of course one can't write Norma (at least in present day stories) without Norman on her mind. However, that relationship is the central focus of the show, and mostly I look for fanfiction to explore what we get less of in canon.
Armadale
Lydia Gwilt, Victorian anti-heroine extraordinaire, is possibly my favourite Wilkie Collins character. We get some tantalizing bits of her past, so there is room for a lot of elaboration and speculation. What was it like for her, growing up with and groomed by Mrs. Oldershaw, how did she develop her independent mind and spirits? (And that withering sarcasm.) (Personal speculation: since she got the blame for the entire Ingleby disaster by both the Blanchards and the older, murderous Allan Armadale despite being a twelve years old acting at the instigation of an adult; I imagine that destroyed any respect for authorities.) Was Waldron the first person she killed? The laudanum addiction, which she shares with her author (and a lot of other Victorians): when did that start, and knowing what we know, but the Victorians didn't, about drugs, how does it influence her?
I'm a canon girl at heart, but if you want to go into an AU direction, I'd be game in this case: what if she'd met Ozias before blond Allan Armadale the younger did? Or if she'd saved him as in the novel but instead of killing herself escaped to start anew?
(And then there's the completely crazy Victorian novel crossover where Lydia becomes the governess not of Neelie, but of Adele in Thornfield Hall, and has absolutely no time for Rochester's games, helping Bertha to escape and kill him instead....)
Seriously though: as long as Lydia is the central focus, I'll be happy.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1022139.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
I'm happy and grateful you're going to write a story for me. We must share at least one fandom, and I hope you'll have fun writing in it. The ideas in my requests are just that: ideas. If you feel inspired by another direction of story altogether, go for it, as long as it features the characters I requested.
General likes and dislikes: pretty ordinary. I don't like character bashing. (Or the bashing of a relationship in favour of another, but that hardly applies with my requests.) Not to be confused with whitewashing; some of the characters I asked so have canonically done some pretty apalling things, and you don't have to pretend they didn't, or that it was all someone else's fault, just because I love them. As long as they come across as three dimensional people with flaws and strengths, I'll be content.
Quiet character exploration or plotty tale, gen or slash/het/any combination thereof, humor or dark fic, canon or AU, it's all good, though unless you're one of those awesomely talented people who can write characterisation via sex, I'd prefer a story that's more than a PWP.
Now, as to individual requests:
The Americans
Claudia fascinates me. Anything focused on her would make me happy, be it backstory (for example young Claudia at Stalingrad - only please don't make it all about Zukhov), how she became one of the KGB top handlers, what she did between seasons (becoming Emmett and Leanne's handler, maybe?), s1 or s2 interaction with Elizabeth and Philip, future fic - anything, as long as it's Claudia centric and explores her character. If you want to go for crossovers and have her run into Harry from Spooks or George Smiley or, why not, James Bond, be my guest! Anything Claudia-centric would be lovely.
Alternatively: Charles knows Philip's primary alias and knows him sans disguise; he probably was Philip's first recruit, as Gregory was Elizabeth's. There's a lot of tension but also a lot of mutual intimate knowledge there (note that Charles is the sole character to whom Philip says, in as many words, how sick he's become of killing and that he doesn't even know whether there's a point). A story that explores their relationship would be great. How did it start? How come Charles - alcoholic and adrenaline junkie - knows so much about Philip and hasn't slipped up yet (or been killed for being a security risk)? I'm fine with either gen or slash, if that's how you choose to go, but if the later, please give me a bit more than just a PWP.
Penny Dreadful
The Vanessa and Malcolm relationship (write it Vanessa & Malcolm or Vanessa/Malcolm, I'm good either way) is my primary source of fascination on the show, so anything dealing with its messed up intensity and glory in detail would make me happy. Since the show left it open when Malcolm's relationship with Vanessa's mother started: if you do want to make him Vanessa's biological father, that's also fine with me. (It's not how I interpret the show, because Malcolm choosing Vanessa in the end has more meaning to me if he's not bound to her biologically but by choice, but it's entirely possible and could be interesting to explore.) The show never told us whetherr Vanessa is financially independent, but assuming her father is as dead as her mother, she probably has her own money, inherited from them. Now that Mina is gone, there is no reason for her to stay with Malcolm other than her own wishes. Does she consider alternatives? What, in the end, makes her stay?
Sembene: shamefully underexplored (yet, I hope for better in the future) on the show, so any backstory you can come up with, or things he experiences during s1 when off screen, would be fine by me. If you focus on his relationship with Malcolm: I assume there's more to it than a life saving, otherwise I can't see Sembene bothering, and while Malcolm is a terrible person (and knows it), he must have done non-destructive things in Africa as well for Sembene - who doesn't strike me as Stockholme'd - to live and work with him.
Or: at the end of the season, Vanessa jokes about asking the boys to celebrate Christmas with them. My focus aside, I love the entire ensemble. Go wild with A Penny Dreadful Christmas, complete with Victor and Ethan wrecking their minds trying to come up with suitable presents for the Murray/Ives household, Caliban losing his virginity to Dorian Gray (because Dorian is into new experiences and is mostly immortal; it would solve Caliban's mating problem at least for a one night stand) as a Christmas treat, and a walking Mummy showing up as an invited Christmas guest (because that's the Penny Dreadful creature still missing). Or, you know, anything else you can come up with. I'm bound to love all.
15th Century RPF
It's my cracky Yuletide idea of the year: Margaret Beaufort meets Rodrigo Borgia. Just how this could happen (does she make a pilgrimage to Rome in between scheming? Does a younger Cardinal Borgia visit France to collect votes for the next papal election and Margaret happens to be there looking for Lancastrian allies persuadable to the Tudor cause?) is up to your discretion, also, the when. The characters could be either strictly your own interpretation of their historical selves or based on other media (say, The White Queen's "I wanted to be a saint" Margaret meeting Jeremy Irons! Rodrigo (who knows something about the frustrations of people who shall remain Savonarola having visions from God while he does not), or an AU where there're both heads of Mafia crime families or head space ships, I don't care as long as I can recognize them by more than name. I'd be happy with either. Depending on just when this encounter takes place, Vannozza or Elizabeth of York showing up as well would be a bonus, since I'm fond of either lady, but is not a necessity, as long as you pull off a Margaret-meets-Rodrigo encounter.
I'd imagine she'd be appalled (someone cheerfully indulging his illegitimate children, not even calling them nieces and nephews, makes Pope while no one will acknowledge her candidacy for sainthood when she had to give up her far too early conceived and lost son to a variety of guardians) but also intrrigued by the possibilities (maybe an excommunication for the Yorkists...). He'd be somewhere between appalled (not another self appointed power hungry mystic!) and intrigued (smart, tough women capable of defeating the odds with a sense of strategy are so his type, see also: Vannozza). But if you have other ideas: go for them! It's so outrageously unlikely an encounter that anything goes.
Bates Motel
Norma, messed-up, doomed but so alive Norma is my favourite on this show. So any story exploring her would be welcome, from whichever angle. Some suggestions (which of course are optional): her relationship with Emma through both seasons (now Emma is much more emotionally invested in both Norma and Norman than they are in her, but I think Norma does like Emma; the scene where Emma asks her about first time sex and Norma swallows down her own bad memories to give Emma friendly and encouraging advice is one of my favourites in s2). Or: Norma and Dylan, aka the other spectacularly intense and spectacularly messed up mother/son relationship on the show. At the end of s2, they're in a better place (for now), and Dylan has started to believe Norma loves him, but I'd like the fact that he instinctively believed Caleb over her when the truth about his parentage came out addressed. (If you want to tackle the entire backstory of Norma's childhood and adolescence - kudos to you!) Or: Norma and Alex Romero. There's chemistry there, and they can be both hilarious and intense together. But Romero is aware how emotionally unstable she is. And he himself is Sheriff in a drug dealer town who lives by compromise (and used to be best buddies with the creep who raped her in the pilot). So, even leaving her Psycho-ordained fate aside, they're hardly destined for a happily ever after. But it's still an against the odd friendship/flirtation that could turn into more even if they both know better...
As I said, just some ideas. I haven't mentioned Norman yet, not because I don't appreciate the character, and of course one can't write Norma (at least in present day stories) without Norman on her mind. However, that relationship is the central focus of the show, and mostly I look for fanfiction to explore what we get less of in canon.
Armadale
Lydia Gwilt, Victorian anti-heroine extraordinaire, is possibly my favourite Wilkie Collins character. We get some tantalizing bits of her past, so there is room for a lot of elaboration and speculation. What was it like for her, growing up with and groomed by Mrs. Oldershaw, how did she develop her independent mind and spirits? (And that withering sarcasm.) (Personal speculation: since she got the blame for the entire Ingleby disaster by both the Blanchards and the older, murderous Allan Armadale despite being a twelve years old acting at the instigation of an adult; I imagine that destroyed any respect for authorities.) Was Waldron the first person she killed? The laudanum addiction, which she shares with her author (and a lot of other Victorians): when did that start, and knowing what we know, but the Victorians didn't, about drugs, how does it influence her?
I'm a canon girl at heart, but if you want to go into an AU direction, I'd be game in this case: what if she'd met Ozias before blond Allan Armadale the younger did? Or if she'd saved him as in the novel but instead of killing herself escaped to start anew?
(And then there's the completely crazy Victorian novel crossover where Lydia becomes the governess not of Neelie, but of Adele in Thornfield Hall, and has absolutely no time for Rochester's games, helping Bertha to escape and kill him instead....)
Seriously though: as long as Lydia is the central focus, I'll be happy.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1022139.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.