Dear Yuletide Creator
Thank you so much! I love every one of these canons, and I'm sure I'll love whatever you make for me. Also, prompts are guidelines only, so if you have a different idea, go for it. If you see an idea in one request that you want to write for another one, please do!
I've requested some of these before, so feel free to look through my exchange letters tag for additional inspiration.
General likes: hurt/comfort (tropey is welcome; favorite kinds include head injuries, drugged/woozy/out of it, drowning, being stabbed or shot, hypothermia), friendship, enemies/antagonists to friends, case fic, action, domesticity, found families, slice of life, quiet between-times fic like characters playing board games or otherwise hanging out together, holiday fic, missing scenes, character studies, AUs, tropey tropes (e.g. bodyswap, soulmates, sex pollen, truth serum).
Holiday fic: I celebrate Christmas (as a secular holiday), and I am totally there for fic about Christmas or any other holiday the characters might plausibly celebrate (e.g. Elaine in the Matt Scudder books is Jewish, so I'd love to read about Elaine and Matt celebrating one of her holidays!). I am also perfectly fine with non-holiday fic. I don't really have any specific holiday-related DNWs.
DNW: Non-canon major character death or terminal illness clearly leading to death, unrequested non-canon ships (canon ones are always fine), incest, depressing downer endings.
Individual fandom requests
Matthew Scudder Series - Lawrence Block
Matt Scudder
I reread these books this summer, and found that I still really love them. There's absolutely NO fic for these books, so I would be completely delighted with anything! Don't worry about spoilers for any part of canon. I adore Matt and his slightly beat-up, cynical white-knight vibe, and I requested him because he's my favorite. But I will happily take fic about the others, even if Matt barely or never appears. I'd love missing scenes for the books, scenes from a case, Matt with TJ or Elaine or any of the other supporting characters - or even something like TJ and Elaine going to a gallery show together, or Elaine needing to work with Mick because Matt's in trouble, or something like that. TJ's life is never really explored beyond his friendship/mentorship with Matt, and especially in recent years I'd be really interested to find out what he's doing now. Mick is probably my least favorite of Matt's main supporting cast so I'm not sure if I'd want a story focused entirely on him, but I'm happy to have him show up in a supporting role.
I tend to feel more like reading fic set during the later books in the series when Matt is happier and less alone, but if you have an idea set early, I'm fine with that too, or if you want to write something that contrasts different eras in his life, the way the books sometimes do, I would also enjoy that. One thing the books don't quite have enough of for my tastes is h/c, so something along those lines would be wonderful, however tropey or fluffy you like. But if your tastes don't run that way, that's fine too! Just give me Matt doing something (anything!) with his various supporting cast, an original casefic, small scenes from a day in the life ... anything like that would make me happy. I also really love how grounded the books feel in a particular place and time. Your fic doesn't have to feature this (I mean, don't knock yourself out worrying about it, is what I'm saying) but I would really love a fic that manages to capture the books' 80s/90s ambiance, or something about Matt dealing with technological changes. (His efforts to cope with computers and cell phones in the books are hilarious.)
Finally, while I would of course be completely thrilled with canon-compliant fic, if you want to inflict something weird or magical on Matt, I'm also there for it! Perhaps Elaine accidentally sells someone a cursed painting or a lamp with a genie in it, or Matt is hired to retrieve something magical, or hired by someone who is magical, like a werewolf or vampire. Maybe Elaine or TJ or Mick is hiding a magical secret. Cynical, down-to-earth characters having to deal with Magical Bullshit is completely my jam, and something with an urban fantasy or magical-realism vibe would be really fun for me.
Iron Fist (TV)
Any character
I love all the nominated characters - Ward, Danny, Colleen, or Joy - and would happily take fic about any of them!
Ward: Anything to do with his settling into himself and rebuilding his life after getting away from his father's influence, would be great. I adore the Ward & Danny relationship, and would love fic with them, either in the season one-season two gap, when they went from near-strangers to hesitant friends, or on the post-canon road trip with all its wonderful potential for room-sharing, snark, hurt/comfort, bonding over trauma/nightmares, basically getting to know each other better. I really enjoy the kind of involuntary closeness (both emotional and physical) that tends to come when two people are pushed into close quarters when they're not used to it, living in little hotel rooms and tents, being forced to confront each other's bad habits and the lingering effects of the trauma they've both been through. Also, Ward dealing with mystical bullshit will never stop being funny. And I'm also really hungry for Ward & Colleen fic - they have such a good reluctant-inlaws vibe that could translate so easily to reluctant friendship, particularly if they need to work together against a common enemy, or have to cooperate for Danny's sake, e.g. visiting him in the hospital or buying a gift for him. I would also love to see Ward and Joy starting to tentatively rebuild their relationship post-S2. (Super angsty variant: she's in trouble/needs a kidney/etc and Ward shows up to help. Or vice versa.)
Danny - See above for Ward & Danny ideas; I am always here for them, especially with sibling bonding or h/c! For Danny solo, I would really be here for any fic that explores his relationship with the Iron Fist, with violence, with his own weird/divided cultural heritage, etc. He's really just starting to figure himself out and I'd really enjoy seeing more of that. Or maybe just a "day in the life" type of fic; one of the things I love about Danny is how he bonds with people, so a fic that was just Danny going around visiting people in the neighborhood would be lovely. I adore Danny/Colleen as a pairing, so post-canon reunion fic would be lovely, or anything to do with their between-seasons relationship, remodeling the dojo and settling in together. Danny & Joy don't really get much (or any?) S2 interaction after he finds out that she conspired against him with Davos, so you could do a lot with them working through that, becoming friends again, sitting together in the hospital after something happens to Ward, etc.
Colleen - I LOVE COLLEEN. She is so wonderful. Give me anything about Colleen: her daily life working at the community center, her friendship with Misty (I also ship it; just please don't bash Danny if you go that way), learning to use the Iron Fist, working with the Defenders. I ship Danny/Colleen, and also Colleen/Misty as noted -- heck, I'd be here for Colleen/Danny/Misty too. Domestic fluffiness is welcome! Adopting a pet, doing holidays. As mentioned above, I'd be really into fic about Colleen and Ward reluctantly bonding post-S2. Colleen and Joy are a bit of an odd couple after everything that went down in S2, but maybe Colleen has to seek her out for a favor, or Joy comes to her for help, or you could do a missing scene for S1 that involves the two of them spending more time together.
Joy - She's such a wonderful morally gray character. I love how she seeks redemption on her own terms in the back half of S2; it's not about being *nice*, it's about doing the right thing. I would love to see her rebuilding her life post-S2, whatever shape that takes for her. Interactions with any of the above characters are welcome -- Ward, Colleen, or Danny -- or with other characters in the show or the general Defendersverse. I would love to see her taking further steps towards reconciliation with Ward or Danny. Another possibility that might be interesting would be Joy getting to meet her niece or nephew; she's got a different (but related) set of family-related trauma than Ward does, so how does she deal with having small children in the family? Or maybe her first Christmas away from Ward - or her second one, after he leaves New York; what's that like for her, when they were so close for so long? Or maybe she decides to write a tell-all book about her family and everyone else has to deal with it.
Defenders (TV)
Jessica Jones, Danny Rand
Okay, first of all, while I would LOVE fic about these two together, this can be treated as an "or" request; if you have any difficulty writing about them together, I would be delighted with a fic focusing on either of them. Feel free to include the other characters as well: teamfic is fine, and so is fic incorporating their individual supporting casts. You can include or ignore canon from either of their shows. Pairing-wise, I don't really ship them, but feel free to include any canon pairings, Defenders polyfic, or you can go for a light Danny/Jess pairing if you like; I'd just rather have it be more buddyfic than super romantic or PWP.
Danny & Jessica: I absolutely adore how his happy-golden-retriever nature bounces off Jess's cynicism, especially since deep down Danny is darker and Jess is sunnier than either of them would admit on the surface. Anything that involves them working together is great, and as noted above, the other Defenders or characters from their individual shows are welcome to show up. Some ideas:
- Jessica has a case involving magic (ghosts? dragons? wizards?) and reluctantly has to seek Danny's help in dealing with it. (The whole idea of Jessica and magic is too much fun. plz make Jessica deal with magical bullshit while hating every minute of it.)
- Danny needs Jess's private eye skills for something he's working on.
- Defenders Secret Santa; they get each other.
- Trapped together, injured, and forced to cooperate to escape.
- Visiting each other in the hospital. Or being stuck together while recovering from something bad, with the other Defenders hovering.
- Danny tries to teach Jessica to meditate. It goes about like you'd expect.
- Finding a stray/abandoned kitten or other tiny cute thing.
- Road triiiip for whatever completely handwaved reasons you want to send them on a road trip. Maybe Jess has to drive to Ohio for a case and Danny is the only person she knows who has a car and is available.
- General Defenders case/team fic is also lovely. Maybe they have to find some sort of ridiculous villain, or start having Team Movie Nights, or get bodyswapped or someone starts growing wings or something.
For individual fic with either of them: character studies? Action? You can check the Iron Fist section of this letter for Danny ideas; I'd be happy with anything up there! For Jess, I'm okay with some darkness or angst, but would like a hopeful ending, please. Maybe something picking up the pieces after S3, or Jess working on a solo case. Maybe she and Trish start going to rehab together. Or Jess learning a new hobby, adopting a pet, or dealing with the above-mentioned Magical Bullshit without the other Defenders being involved.
Wiseguy
Frank McPike
Okay, so, I requested Frank not because he's my one and only favorite, but because I'd like a gift fic to deal with him in some way, whether it's solo or relating to other characters or whatever. He doesn't necessarily need to be featured, but I want him to be *there.* I would enjoy Frank with Vinnie, with Lifeguard, or with other characters from the show, or OCs.
I adore Frank's world-weary cynicism combined with his deep-down decency, moral fiber, and goodheartedness. I love Frank bonding with the people around him, and his sarcastic sense of humor, and all those times when his determination to stick to the law runs headlong into his decency and he has to make a choice.
Some things I'd enjoy:
- Season 4 fixits. I don't usually headcanon out chunks of a show, but, uh, in this case I have totally done that, and I would prefer S4 to be ignored if possible, except in the context of a fixit. But wow, WHAT a potential for fixits. Give me presumed dead angst, Frank going rogue, Frank hauling Vinnie out of a death squad torture chamber ... you know, all the good stuff.
- Post-S3 follow-ups are also very welcome. Given the emotional and physical place that both Frank and Vinnie were in at the end of the season, I just want healing, and talking, and all the comfort and recovery that canon so cruelly denied us.
- Missing scenes for any point in canon would be great. There's a lot of potential for between-times fic, recovery from various things that happened during the series (to Vinnie, to Frank, to someone else), Frank's POV on various things going down with Vinnie, etc.
- Just Frank and Vinnie hanging out between cases would also be fun. I loved those little bits we got of them in DC in meetings and so forth. Vinnie just hanging around in a leather jacket surrounded by suit-wearing Agency bureaucrats is great, especially accompanied by Frank's tolerantly amused attitude at it all.
- A new case! I would love to see them out in the field, at some point during canon, or post-canon. I really enjoyed those times in the show when Frank needed to get directly involved along with the field agents. That said, I also love his clandestine meetings with Vinnie in laundries and junkyards and dentist's offices.
- I think the trope where a character is completely doped up and someone else has to take care of them might be especially fun with Frank, whether he's in the caretaker role or the person who's drugged and out of it.
- Also, you know what? That thing I said in one of the above requests about how much I love cynical characters being forced to deal with Magical Bullshit totally applies here too. I know magical things like cursed paintings and werewolves don't exist in canon, but there's no reason why we can't have them in fic. Frank having to rescue Vinnie from some sort of magical peril while hating every second of it would be AWESOME. Maybe one of the mob rituals Vinnie is forced to go through is literally, magically binding, or he's given a knife that will force him to kill people a la the Jack-of-Smiles knife in the browser game Fallen London; maybe Vinnie goes undercover in a gang that is really a werewolf pack; maybe Frank finds out his new boss or co-worker at the FBI is actualfax possessed by a demon. Given the tone of canon, I'd be fine with a fairly dark tone here, though I would still prefer a happy or at least hopeful ending.
- Feel free to bring back Lillah. I really liked her.
This entry is also posted at https://sholio.dreamwidth.org/1278021.html with
comments.
I've requested some of these before, so feel free to look through my exchange letters tag for additional inspiration.
General likes: hurt/comfort (tropey is welcome; favorite kinds include head injuries, drugged/woozy/out of it, drowning, being stabbed or shot, hypothermia), friendship, enemies/antagonists to friends, case fic, action, domesticity, found families, slice of life, quiet between-times fic like characters playing board games or otherwise hanging out together, holiday fic, missing scenes, character studies, AUs, tropey tropes (e.g. bodyswap, soulmates, sex pollen, truth serum).
Holiday fic: I celebrate Christmas (as a secular holiday), and I am totally there for fic about Christmas or any other holiday the characters might plausibly celebrate (e.g. Elaine in the Matt Scudder books is Jewish, so I'd love to read about Elaine and Matt celebrating one of her holidays!). I am also perfectly fine with non-holiday fic. I don't really have any specific holiday-related DNWs.
DNW: Non-canon major character death or terminal illness clearly leading to death, unrequested non-canon ships (canon ones are always fine), incest, depressing downer endings.
Individual fandom requests
Matthew Scudder Series - Lawrence Block
Matt Scudder
I reread these books this summer, and found that I still really love them. There's absolutely NO fic for these books, so I would be completely delighted with anything! Don't worry about spoilers for any part of canon. I adore Matt and his slightly beat-up, cynical white-knight vibe, and I requested him because he's my favorite. But I will happily take fic about the others, even if Matt barely or never appears. I'd love missing scenes for the books, scenes from a case, Matt with TJ or Elaine or any of the other supporting characters - or even something like TJ and Elaine going to a gallery show together, or Elaine needing to work with Mick because Matt's in trouble, or something like that. TJ's life is never really explored beyond his friendship/mentorship with Matt, and especially in recent years I'd be really interested to find out what he's doing now. Mick is probably my least favorite of Matt's main supporting cast so I'm not sure if I'd want a story focused entirely on him, but I'm happy to have him show up in a supporting role.
I tend to feel more like reading fic set during the later books in the series when Matt is happier and less alone, but if you have an idea set early, I'm fine with that too, or if you want to write something that contrasts different eras in his life, the way the books sometimes do, I would also enjoy that. One thing the books don't quite have enough of for my tastes is h/c, so something along those lines would be wonderful, however tropey or fluffy you like. But if your tastes don't run that way, that's fine too! Just give me Matt doing something (anything!) with his various supporting cast, an original casefic, small scenes from a day in the life ... anything like that would make me happy. I also really love how grounded the books feel in a particular place and time. Your fic doesn't have to feature this (I mean, don't knock yourself out worrying about it, is what I'm saying) but I would really love a fic that manages to capture the books' 80s/90s ambiance, or something about Matt dealing with technological changes. (His efforts to cope with computers and cell phones in the books are hilarious.)
Finally, while I would of course be completely thrilled with canon-compliant fic, if you want to inflict something weird or magical on Matt, I'm also there for it! Perhaps Elaine accidentally sells someone a cursed painting or a lamp with a genie in it, or Matt is hired to retrieve something magical, or hired by someone who is magical, like a werewolf or vampire. Maybe Elaine or TJ or Mick is hiding a magical secret. Cynical, down-to-earth characters having to deal with Magical Bullshit is completely my jam, and something with an urban fantasy or magical-realism vibe would be really fun for me.
Iron Fist (TV)
Any character
I love all the nominated characters - Ward, Danny, Colleen, or Joy - and would happily take fic about any of them!
Ward: Anything to do with his settling into himself and rebuilding his life after getting away from his father's influence, would be great. I adore the Ward & Danny relationship, and would love fic with them, either in the season one-season two gap, when they went from near-strangers to hesitant friends, or on the post-canon road trip with all its wonderful potential for room-sharing, snark, hurt/comfort, bonding over trauma/nightmares, basically getting to know each other better. I really enjoy the kind of involuntary closeness (both emotional and physical) that tends to come when two people are pushed into close quarters when they're not used to it, living in little hotel rooms and tents, being forced to confront each other's bad habits and the lingering effects of the trauma they've both been through. Also, Ward dealing with mystical bullshit will never stop being funny. And I'm also really hungry for Ward & Colleen fic - they have such a good reluctant-inlaws vibe that could translate so easily to reluctant friendship, particularly if they need to work together against a common enemy, or have to cooperate for Danny's sake, e.g. visiting him in the hospital or buying a gift for him. I would also love to see Ward and Joy starting to tentatively rebuild their relationship post-S2. (Super angsty variant: she's in trouble/needs a kidney/etc and Ward shows up to help. Or vice versa.)
Danny - See above for Ward & Danny ideas; I am always here for them, especially with sibling bonding or h/c! For Danny solo, I would really be here for any fic that explores his relationship with the Iron Fist, with violence, with his own weird/divided cultural heritage, etc. He's really just starting to figure himself out and I'd really enjoy seeing more of that. Or maybe just a "day in the life" type of fic; one of the things I love about Danny is how he bonds with people, so a fic that was just Danny going around visiting people in the neighborhood would be lovely. I adore Danny/Colleen as a pairing, so post-canon reunion fic would be lovely, or anything to do with their between-seasons relationship, remodeling the dojo and settling in together. Danny & Joy don't really get much (or any?) S2 interaction after he finds out that she conspired against him with Davos, so you could do a lot with them working through that, becoming friends again, sitting together in the hospital after something happens to Ward, etc.
Colleen - I LOVE COLLEEN. She is so wonderful. Give me anything about Colleen: her daily life working at the community center, her friendship with Misty (I also ship it; just please don't bash Danny if you go that way), learning to use the Iron Fist, working with the Defenders. I ship Danny/Colleen, and also Colleen/Misty as noted -- heck, I'd be here for Colleen/Danny/Misty too. Domestic fluffiness is welcome! Adopting a pet, doing holidays. As mentioned above, I'd be really into fic about Colleen and Ward reluctantly bonding post-S2. Colleen and Joy are a bit of an odd couple after everything that went down in S2, but maybe Colleen has to seek her out for a favor, or Joy comes to her for help, or you could do a missing scene for S1 that involves the two of them spending more time together.
Joy - She's such a wonderful morally gray character. I love how she seeks redemption on her own terms in the back half of S2; it's not about being *nice*, it's about doing the right thing. I would love to see her rebuilding her life post-S2, whatever shape that takes for her. Interactions with any of the above characters are welcome -- Ward, Colleen, or Danny -- or with other characters in the show or the general Defendersverse. I would love to see her taking further steps towards reconciliation with Ward or Danny. Another possibility that might be interesting would be Joy getting to meet her niece or nephew; she's got a different (but related) set of family-related trauma than Ward does, so how does she deal with having small children in the family? Or maybe her first Christmas away from Ward - or her second one, after he leaves New York; what's that like for her, when they were so close for so long? Or maybe she decides to write a tell-all book about her family and everyone else has to deal with it.
Defenders (TV)
Jessica Jones, Danny Rand
Okay, first of all, while I would LOVE fic about these two together, this can be treated as an "or" request; if you have any difficulty writing about them together, I would be delighted with a fic focusing on either of them. Feel free to include the other characters as well: teamfic is fine, and so is fic incorporating their individual supporting casts. You can include or ignore canon from either of their shows. Pairing-wise, I don't really ship them, but feel free to include any canon pairings, Defenders polyfic, or you can go for a light Danny/Jess pairing if you like; I'd just rather have it be more buddyfic than super romantic or PWP.
Danny & Jessica: I absolutely adore how his happy-golden-retriever nature bounces off Jess's cynicism, especially since deep down Danny is darker and Jess is sunnier than either of them would admit on the surface. Anything that involves them working together is great, and as noted above, the other Defenders or characters from their individual shows are welcome to show up. Some ideas:
- Jessica has a case involving magic (ghosts? dragons? wizards?) and reluctantly has to seek Danny's help in dealing with it. (The whole idea of Jessica and magic is too much fun. plz make Jessica deal with magical bullshit while hating every minute of it.)
- Danny needs Jess's private eye skills for something he's working on.
- Defenders Secret Santa; they get each other.
- Trapped together, injured, and forced to cooperate to escape.
- Visiting each other in the hospital. Or being stuck together while recovering from something bad, with the other Defenders hovering.
- Danny tries to teach Jessica to meditate. It goes about like you'd expect.
- Finding a stray/abandoned kitten or other tiny cute thing.
- Road triiiip for whatever completely handwaved reasons you want to send them on a road trip. Maybe Jess has to drive to Ohio for a case and Danny is the only person she knows who has a car and is available.
- General Defenders case/team fic is also lovely. Maybe they have to find some sort of ridiculous villain, or start having Team Movie Nights, or get bodyswapped or someone starts growing wings or something.
For individual fic with either of them: character studies? Action? You can check the Iron Fist section of this letter for Danny ideas; I'd be happy with anything up there! For Jess, I'm okay with some darkness or angst, but would like a hopeful ending, please. Maybe something picking up the pieces after S3, or Jess working on a solo case. Maybe she and Trish start going to rehab together. Or Jess learning a new hobby, adopting a pet, or dealing with the above-mentioned Magical Bullshit without the other Defenders being involved.
Wiseguy
Frank McPike
Okay, so, I requested Frank not because he's my one and only favorite, but because I'd like a gift fic to deal with him in some way, whether it's solo or relating to other characters or whatever. He doesn't necessarily need to be featured, but I want him to be *there.* I would enjoy Frank with Vinnie, with Lifeguard, or with other characters from the show, or OCs.
I adore Frank's world-weary cynicism combined with his deep-down decency, moral fiber, and goodheartedness. I love Frank bonding with the people around him, and his sarcastic sense of humor, and all those times when his determination to stick to the law runs headlong into his decency and he has to make a choice.
Some things I'd enjoy:
- Season 4 fixits. I don't usually headcanon out chunks of a show, but, uh, in this case I have totally done that, and I would prefer S4 to be ignored if possible, except in the context of a fixit. But wow, WHAT a potential for fixits. Give me presumed dead angst, Frank going rogue, Frank hauling Vinnie out of a death squad torture chamber ... you know, all the good stuff.
- Post-S3 follow-ups are also very welcome. Given the emotional and physical place that both Frank and Vinnie were in at the end of the season, I just want healing, and talking, and all the comfort and recovery that canon so cruelly denied us.
- Missing scenes for any point in canon would be great. There's a lot of potential for between-times fic, recovery from various things that happened during the series (to Vinnie, to Frank, to someone else), Frank's POV on various things going down with Vinnie, etc.
- Just Frank and Vinnie hanging out between cases would also be fun. I loved those little bits we got of them in DC in meetings and so forth. Vinnie just hanging around in a leather jacket surrounded by suit-wearing Agency bureaucrats is great, especially accompanied by Frank's tolerantly amused attitude at it all.
- A new case! I would love to see them out in the field, at some point during canon, or post-canon. I really enjoyed those times in the show when Frank needed to get directly involved along with the field agents. That said, I also love his clandestine meetings with Vinnie in laundries and junkyards and dentist's offices.
- I think the trope where a character is completely doped up and someone else has to take care of them might be especially fun with Frank, whether he's in the caretaker role or the person who's drugged and out of it.
- Also, you know what? That thing I said in one of the above requests about how much I love cynical characters being forced to deal with Magical Bullshit totally applies here too. I know magical things like cursed paintings and werewolves don't exist in canon, but there's no reason why we can't have them in fic. Frank having to rescue Vinnie from some sort of magical peril while hating every second of it would be AWESOME. Maybe one of the mob rituals Vinnie is forced to go through is literally, magically binding, or he's given a knife that will force him to kill people a la the Jack-of-Smiles knife in the browser game Fallen London; maybe Vinnie goes undercover in a gang that is really a werewolf pack; maybe Frank finds out his new boss or co-worker at the FBI is actualfax possessed by a demon. Given the tone of canon, I'd be fine with a fairly dark tone here, though I would still prefer a happy or at least hopeful ending.
- Feel free to bring back Lillah. I really liked her.
This entry is also posted at https://sholio.dreamwidth.org/1278021.html with
comments.