Dear Yuletide Author
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Thank you so much for writing for me! I'm so excited to read what you write.
My letter includes some general likes and dislikes, as well as some discussion of the fandoms and assorted prompts. If it's more than you need, please feel free to skip this and just use my sign-up as a starting point.
I'm skieswideopen at AO3 as well.
Requested Fandoms: BHUS | The Collector | Covert Affairs
Things I Like:
* Competence. So much love for watching competent characters be competent!
* Secrets coming out, by choice, chance, or necessity.
* Equal partnerships in romantic relationships.
* Brief moments of emotional vulnerability from generally stoic or reserved characters.
* Heroic characters being heroic: doing the right thing, saving people, sacrificing themselves for others, etc.
* Stories that pick up dropped plot threads.
* Stories that explore who the characters are and how they respond to unexpected situations.
* First times of various kinds (first kiss, first date, first day on the job, etc.).
* Forced proximity (handcuffed together, snowed in, trapped together in an elevator, etc.).
* Truth serum/in vino veritas/midnight confessions. (See my above love of secrets coming out.)
* Undercover as a couple (or spontaneously posing as a couple to avoid detection).
* Post-apocalyptic or trapped-in-the-wilderness survival scenarios.
* Time loops and dealing with the consequences when the loop ends.
* Heading home for weddings, funerals, high school reunions, holidays, etc. Alternately, family or old friends showing up.
Things I Don't Want:
* AUs other than canon divergence AUs, unless requested. This includes AUs that change the premise, setting and/or character roles (e.g., coffee shop AUs) and AUs that alter the basic rules of how the universe works, like a/b/o, wingfic, or soulmarks.
* Lifestyle or 24/7 BDSM.
* Unrequested changes to a canon character's sexuality/gender/race/etc. (I'm fine with making straight-presenting characters bi, and with choosing a sexual orientation for characters who haven't indicated one in canon.)
* Unrequested poly relationships involving requested characters.
* Significant permanent mental or physical injuries to requested characters that don't occur in canon, especially any sort of amputation. Killing requested or major characters is fine, however, unless otherwise noted.
Other Things:
* I'm flexible on both genre and rating: plot-driven, character-driven, action, introspection, casefic, slice of life, gen, romance ... it's all good. So is anything from G to E, though I prefer to avoid PWP stories.
* I'm fine with character death, including main and requested characters, unless otherwise noted.
* Background non-con is fine if it's helpful for the story, but I'd rather it not be the primary focus of the story.
* Dub-con (intoxication, third parties made them do it, maintaining a cover, etc.) is fine as long as it involves mutual attraction and isn't devastatingly traumatizing for those involved.
* I'm okay with mentions of the pandemic and also with fic set during holidays like Christmas.
* I generally prefer happy, hopeful, and bittersweet endings to utterly bleak ones.
* I dislike plots that revolve around misunderstandings that could be cleared up with a simple conversation or that hinge on characters making foolish mistakes that they wouldn't make in canon.
Being Human (US/Canada)
Requested Character: Aidan Waite
Sign-up Request: I loved all of the roommates on Being Human, but Aidan was my favourite. I'd love to see some exploration of some of the bits of his past that we didn't get to see on the show or the early days of his friendship with Josh or his ongoing struggle to stop killing or what happens when he introduces Henry to that world or his relationship with the royals back when he was still in favour or anything else that explores how Aidan became who he is or his friendship with Josh, Sally, and Nora.
For ships, my favourite was Aidan/Kat. They were never destined for a happy ending, and I think Kat was absolutely right to break up with Aidan as soon as she learned the truth, but I enjoyed them together anyway. If you want to give them a brief happy moment: a faculty party or a trip or a (canon divergent) post-series meeting where they achieve a détente of some sort, that would be great. Aidan/Suren would also be interesting, looking at how Suren became what she was and what drew them together to the point where they were willing to die for each other.
A reformed 18th-century vampire and a going-to-med-school-until-he-got-bitten werewolf decide to become roommates in order to support each other in their efforts to be more human, and discover their house is haunted by a ghost who's delighted to find other people who can see her. Aidan, as I said, is my favourite, but I'm happy to see appearance by the other roommates as well. As far as Aidan goes, I appreciate that he tries so hard to stop killing. I love that he takes care of the people he loves, both protecting them and providing emotional support, whether it's returning to Bishop to help save Josh, lying to Liam to protect Nora, or reassuring Sally that she doesn't know for sure that she's permanently trapped as a ghost. I also appreciate that he will often try to think his way out of problems instead of automatically fighting his way through, but he can fight if he needs to. And I appreciate that he's generally pretty competent when he's not accidentally killing people.
Possible prompts:
* When and how did Aidan learn so much about how magic works? (Did he date a witch? Befriend one? Find himself in a fight against a coven?)
* How did he first meet Tony DePaulo, the ghost he introduces Sally to?
* What do the other nurses think of Aidan? Where was he living before he moved in with Josh?
* What was his early friendship with Josh like? How much did he reveal about his past and the supernatural world?
* Did Aidan and Nora bond during those months of taking care of Josh in early season 4? What happened between them?
* Have there been other instances when his ability to see ghosts or his other supernatural abilities have made a difference? Maybe in his work as a nurse or as a soldier or maybe a child ghost he decides to help or someone else he saves?
* Holidays Aidan has celebrated over the years.
* What led to him finally stop killing?
* What was life like for him when he was still enmeshed in the vampire community but beginning to be bothered by killing?
* What led Aidan and Bishop to start focusing on blue-collar jobs rather than the high society approach vampires seem to have preferred until that point?
* Why do other vampires call him "the great warrior"?
For Aidan/Kat, I loved watching them geek out together over history, and I loved the moments when they tried to protect each other, whether from bad ex-boyfriends or sketchy werewolf thugs. Obviously there were a bunch of issues with their relationship, what with the memory manipulation and the semi-accidental murder of Kat's ex, not to mention Aidan's long history of killing and his tendency to slip up a couple of times a year, but since canon dealt with that by having Kat (wisely!) dump Aidan, I'm perfectly happy to ignore all of those things in favour of the more typical problems a romantic couple might face. I would really love to see a little more of the two of them interacting, either while they're still happily dating or the two of them meeting again after they break up. (The latter would likely involve selectively editing or otherwise hand-waving away chunks of season 4, which I'm perfectly happy for you to do. Want to pretend the whole ghost story didn't happen, or that things went more smoothly with Kenny? Go for it.)
Aidan/Suren was also a mess, for different reasons, before finally ending in tragedy. How did they get to that point of mutual self-sacrifice? How did Aidan reconcile a relationship with a vampire who had no problems killing? What was their relationship like in earlier eras? What drew him to Suren this time?
Additional DNWS: I'd rather not receive Aidan/Bishop. Also, I preferred Aidan and Sally as friends, so while mentioning their relationship is fine, I'd rather it not be the primary focus of the story. Finally, I don't want Kat dying because of Aidan, either at his hands or killed by someone related to him (e.g., a werewolf or a vampire looking for revenge).
Possible shippy prompts:
* Aidan demonstrating a surprisingly detailed knowledge of local history or Kat trying to find out where he gets some of this very specific historical information.
* Meeting Kat's family or her colleagues.
* Going on a trip together.
* Something happens that forces Aidan to reveal that he can see ghosts, or that magic is real and he knows a little about it, or maybe some physical altercation takes place where he pushes the edge of human physical abilities a little, leading Kat to realize that there's something unusual about him without necessarily jumping to "vampire."
* Aidan and Kat run into each other post-series and end up trapped together-trapped in a broken elevator or held hostage together in a bank or snowed in at the same small in or whatever-giving them a chance to talk and forcing them to rely on each other.
* Post-series, Kat or someone she knows-a student, a family member-finds themselves in some sort of supernatural trouble involving ghosts or witches or family curses and Kat reluctantly calls on Aidan because he's the only one she knows who might be able to help.
* Was Aidan intended by Mother or the Dutch to be a stabilizing force for Suren when she took over, before he walked away from the vampire community?
* How did he feel about supervising her reawakening?
* What would have happened if he had been allowed to walk away?
Back to general preferences
The Collector (Canada TV)
Requested Characters: Morgan Pym, Maya Kandinski
Sign-up Request: I'd love to see a story that explores Morgan and Maya's relationship after Maya finds out the truth about who Morgan is and what he does. Maybe something that answers some of the questions left unanswered at the end of the show, or that finally resolves their UST, or just a client-of-the-week case where Maya's knowing the truth enables her to help Morgan in some way or where she learns more about his life and past experiences. Gen, UST, and full-out ship fic would all be awesome.
If you want to go in a completely different direction, I'd enjoy something about Morgan's hobby as a medical researcher. How does he gain access to the resources he needs? What other medical advances has he made over the years? Or maybe just something about how Morgan fills his time-all those sleepless nights!-apart from the work he does for the devil. Or a story from Morgan's past where he managed to form a human connection or thwart the devil in some small way would be great too. If you want to go this route, you don't have to include Maya.
The Collector is a Canadian TV show about a former monk who spent centuries reluctantly sending people to hell after their ten-year deals expired, but who managed at the start of the series to gain permission from the devil to try to save his clients from their fate by helping them make up for the harm they did. I enjoyed it for the historical flashbacks, for the interesting and sometimes troubling worldbuilding (how is it fair that someone can be sent to hell just because someone else explains the deal system to them?), and because Morgan didn't always succeed. Sometimes he saved his client, sometimes he didn't, and you never knew which you were going to get.
Morgan can be difficult at times-overly secretive even when he doesn't need to be and angry in situations where a lighter touch might be more effective-but I really admire his persistence in trying to save others despite having no hope that he'll ever achieve salvation himself, and I love that he's managed to hold on to optimism and hope and faith in people despite everything he's seen. I also admire that he's essentially chosen to stand alone: reluctantly working with the devil because he must, but not really on heaven's or hell's side.
Maya is awesome in her stubborn efforts to rebuild her life. I love that she's trying hard not to waste the second chance she's been given, and I really admire her courage in being willing to go to hell early to save someone else. I'd like to see her succeed at creating the life she wants, whether or not that includes Morgan.
I really liked that the show found a way for Maya to find out what Morgan does and stick around afterward, and I'd love to see more follow-up on what happens after Maya learns the truth, seeing her learn more about what collectors do, or hearing stories about Morgan's past, or just making use of the fact that Maya is the only person Morgan sees regularly who knows the truth. What does it mean for Morgan to have someone he can talk to? What does it mean for Maya to know what's going on? How much does Morgan tell her about his past? Does Maya ever meet any of the other people Morgan has saved? Etc.
From a ship perspective, Maya and Morgan's relationship tends to run hot and cold, largely due to Morgan pulling away at key moments and confessing his love at the most inconvenient times, like just before pushing the button to send Maya to hell. I'd enjoy seeing something that addresses that. Is it Morgan's attempt to protect Maya from the devil? From himself? Is he not used to the idea yet that he can talk to her without sending her to hell? Is there something else going on? Can they achieve an equal relationship given the way things started? Even if they don't end up together, it would be interesting to see them talk about their relationship.
If you're feeling particularly ambitious, I'd adore seeing someone address one of the many plotlines left dangling after cancellation. Why did the devil choose Morgan in the first place? Why even create collectors given that Morgan's clients seen to end up in hell whether or not he actively sends them there? Why did the devil agreed to let Morgan try to save people? (Morgan keeps insisting to people that the devil always wins. Is the devil somehow winning here too?) What role does heaven play in all of this? Will Morgan ever achieve salvation? Why did the devil want Morgan to take Maya to Europe? What's Gabriel's role in all of this? I'm okay with leaving Maya out of this kind of story if the plot doesn't lend itself to her presence, but if you can find a space for her, that's great too.
Possible prompts:
* Morgan and Maya finally go on a proper date.
* A birthday or holiday celebration.
* Maya convinces a reluctant Morgan to play truth or dare.
* Morgan is temporarily seconded to the side of heaven to play bodyguard.
* How does Morgan actually run tests for his medical experiments?
* Morgan, a client, the pandemic. Morgan is immune, of course, but how does his client make amends when everyone is in lockdown? (And how familiar must all of this feel to Morgan?)
Back to general preferences
Covert Affairs
Requested Characters: Eyal Lavin, Annie Walker
Sign-up Request: I'd love a story where Annie and Eyal finally get together. Maybe an extended undercover assignment or a near-miss during a mission leads to certain realizations. Maybe one of them confesses their feelings under the influence of truth serum. Maybe a family member does some matchmaking. Maybe the world as we know it ends and other considerations no longer matter. Maybe they find their way to each other post-series.
If you're not in the mood to write shipfic, something that focuses on their friendship and their willingness to do just about anything for each other would be great: a shared mission or a small favour or a secret confessed or a wilderness survival journey or Annie finally visits Eyal's boat or whatever else you come up with.
Covert Affairs is a show about a young woman with a talent for languages who joins the CIA following a failed love affairs and discovers she's very, very good at being a spy-and, of course, about the equally competent Mossad agent she periodically runs into in the field. The first time I watched Covert Affairs, I was all about Annie/Auggie, but a selective rewatch won me over to Annie/Eyal. I love their banter, their easy ability to keep up with each other in the field, and the minor, often complementary, differences in how they do things: Eyal's professional ruthlessness vs. Annie's empathy, Eyal's careful planning vs. Annie's tendency to play it by ear.
The two of them have a lot in common: mutual respect; many, many languages; a shared understanding of the demands of the job; and a willingness to do just about anything for each other. There are also some significant obstacles to a romantic relationship, mostly notably that they're generally in the employ of competing agencies, neither of which would be happy if their agents were discovered to be involved in a serious relationship. Not to mention the possibility that their superiors might decide to leverage their feelings for each other to benefit the organization.
I'd love to see how they finally get together, whether through one of the usual tropes-undercover as a couple and it turns real, or a near-miss or health crisis or faked death leads to certain realizations, or they get trapped together at just the right time to build feelings or force a confession of existing feelings-or whether it's more tailored to their individual experiences. If it's helpful, I really enjoy Eyal's caretaking tendencies when it comes to Annie, cooking for her and tending to her injuries and generally looking out for her safety without trying to stop her from doing her job.
Alternately, jump ahead a bit and show what their life together might look like if they did find a way to be together. Do they both quit and start their own security business? Do they sail off into the sunset on Eyal's boat (with visits back to Israel for Avi)? Do they try to find a way to have it all?
I'm agnostic on whether you want to address the professional difficulties of a relationship between them and how they deal with that (Hide the relationship? Make the case to Joan and Rivka that it's actually beneficial to both agencies? Walk away from their jobs?) or whether you set the story when it at a point when it doesn't matter or leave it as a discussion for another day.
Additional DNWs: Normally I'm good with killing off anyone, but for this particular request, I'd rather Annie and Eyal both be alive at the end of the fic, or at least not dead of anything besides old age. Feel free to kill them along the way, though, as long as you resurrect them by the end. And feel free to kill off anyone else you like.
Possible prompts:
* One of them gets dosed with truth serum while undercover together (or when they run into each other while undercover separately) and the other has to help cover for them to prevent discovery while still completing the mission.
* Someone is targeting Eyal's family, and a mole in Mossad means he can't rely on them, so he turns to Annie for help.
* One of them is presumed dead on a mission, and later turns up seeking help from the other.
* Major world disaster/apocalypse (alien invasion? major war? an AI takes over?). Annie and Eyal are both survivors. Naturally they find each other.
* Work and/or old enemies invade a date/family time/a holiday celebration/a wedding celebration (their own or someone else's).
* Someone, either one of them or someone they care about, has been poisoned and they have to try to find the cure.
* Held captive together, tending injuries, keeping each other's spirits up, and trying to find a way to escape.
* Circumstances force Annie to introduce Eyal to her (helpfully matchmaking?) sister.
* The morning after an unplanned night of passion.
* More of Eyal cooking for Annie.
* Borrowing from
justmarriedexchange, Annie and Eyal get stuck in a time loop, fall in love, and decide to get married in one cycle, just for fun, only to have the time loop abruptly end.
* Alternately, Annie and Eyal get trapped in a time loop where they're racing to prevent a geopolitical catastrophe-or a more personal tragedy.
Regarding Eyal's name: The canonical AO3 tag says "Lavine," but the show uses "Lavin." See here, for example, or here. Now that I've noticed, I can't unsee it, so I would adore it if you'd use the correct spelling in the story itself, if it comes up. (Using the canonical tag is fine, of course.) Apparently the canonical tag has been fixed. :)
Back to general preferences This entry was originally posted at https://skieswideopen.dreamwidth.org/265745.html, where it has
comments. Comments are equally welcome on either entry.
Thank you so much for writing for me! I'm so excited to read what you write.
My letter includes some general likes and dislikes, as well as some discussion of the fandoms and assorted prompts. If it's more than you need, please feel free to skip this and just use my sign-up as a starting point.
I'm skieswideopen at AO3 as well.
Requested Fandoms: BHUS | The Collector | Covert Affairs
Things I Like:
* Competence. So much love for watching competent characters be competent!
* Secrets coming out, by choice, chance, or necessity.
* Equal partnerships in romantic relationships.
* Brief moments of emotional vulnerability from generally stoic or reserved characters.
* Heroic characters being heroic: doing the right thing, saving people, sacrificing themselves for others, etc.
* Stories that pick up dropped plot threads.
* Stories that explore who the characters are and how they respond to unexpected situations.
* First times of various kinds (first kiss, first date, first day on the job, etc.).
* Forced proximity (handcuffed together, snowed in, trapped together in an elevator, etc.).
* Truth serum/in vino veritas/midnight confessions. (See my above love of secrets coming out.)
* Undercover as a couple (or spontaneously posing as a couple to avoid detection).
* Post-apocalyptic or trapped-in-the-wilderness survival scenarios.
* Time loops and dealing with the consequences when the loop ends.
* Heading home for weddings, funerals, high school reunions, holidays, etc. Alternately, family or old friends showing up.
Things I Don't Want:
* AUs other than canon divergence AUs, unless requested. This includes AUs that change the premise, setting and/or character roles (e.g., coffee shop AUs) and AUs that alter the basic rules of how the universe works, like a/b/o, wingfic, or soulmarks.
* Lifestyle or 24/7 BDSM.
* Unrequested changes to a canon character's sexuality/gender/race/etc. (I'm fine with making straight-presenting characters bi, and with choosing a sexual orientation for characters who haven't indicated one in canon.)
* Unrequested poly relationships involving requested characters.
* Significant permanent mental or physical injuries to requested characters that don't occur in canon, especially any sort of amputation. Killing requested or major characters is fine, however, unless otherwise noted.
Other Things:
* I'm flexible on both genre and rating: plot-driven, character-driven, action, introspection, casefic, slice of life, gen, romance ... it's all good. So is anything from G to E, though I prefer to avoid PWP stories.
* I'm fine with character death, including main and requested characters, unless otherwise noted.
* Background non-con is fine if it's helpful for the story, but I'd rather it not be the primary focus of the story.
* Dub-con (intoxication, third parties made them do it, maintaining a cover, etc.) is fine as long as it involves mutual attraction and isn't devastatingly traumatizing for those involved.
* I'm okay with mentions of the pandemic and also with fic set during holidays like Christmas.
* I generally prefer happy, hopeful, and bittersweet endings to utterly bleak ones.
* I dislike plots that revolve around misunderstandings that could be cleared up with a simple conversation or that hinge on characters making foolish mistakes that they wouldn't make in canon.
Being Human (US/Canada)
Requested Character: Aidan Waite
Sign-up Request: I loved all of the roommates on Being Human, but Aidan was my favourite. I'd love to see some exploration of some of the bits of his past that we didn't get to see on the show or the early days of his friendship with Josh or his ongoing struggle to stop killing or what happens when he introduces Henry to that world or his relationship with the royals back when he was still in favour or anything else that explores how Aidan became who he is or his friendship with Josh, Sally, and Nora.
For ships, my favourite was Aidan/Kat. They were never destined for a happy ending, and I think Kat was absolutely right to break up with Aidan as soon as she learned the truth, but I enjoyed them together anyway. If you want to give them a brief happy moment: a faculty party or a trip or a (canon divergent) post-series meeting where they achieve a détente of some sort, that would be great. Aidan/Suren would also be interesting, looking at how Suren became what she was and what drew them together to the point where they were willing to die for each other.
A reformed 18th-century vampire and a going-to-med-school-until-he-got-bitten werewolf decide to become roommates in order to support each other in their efforts to be more human, and discover their house is haunted by a ghost who's delighted to find other people who can see her. Aidan, as I said, is my favourite, but I'm happy to see appearance by the other roommates as well. As far as Aidan goes, I appreciate that he tries so hard to stop killing. I love that he takes care of the people he loves, both protecting them and providing emotional support, whether it's returning to Bishop to help save Josh, lying to Liam to protect Nora, or reassuring Sally that she doesn't know for sure that she's permanently trapped as a ghost. I also appreciate that he will often try to think his way out of problems instead of automatically fighting his way through, but he can fight if he needs to. And I appreciate that he's generally pretty competent when he's not accidentally killing people.
Possible prompts:
* When and how did Aidan learn so much about how magic works? (Did he date a witch? Befriend one? Find himself in a fight against a coven?)
* How did he first meet Tony DePaulo, the ghost he introduces Sally to?
* What do the other nurses think of Aidan? Where was he living before he moved in with Josh?
* What was his early friendship with Josh like? How much did he reveal about his past and the supernatural world?
* Did Aidan and Nora bond during those months of taking care of Josh in early season 4? What happened between them?
* Have there been other instances when his ability to see ghosts or his other supernatural abilities have made a difference? Maybe in his work as a nurse or as a soldier or maybe a child ghost he decides to help or someone else he saves?
* Holidays Aidan has celebrated over the years.
* What led to him finally stop killing?
* What was life like for him when he was still enmeshed in the vampire community but beginning to be bothered by killing?
* What led Aidan and Bishop to start focusing on blue-collar jobs rather than the high society approach vampires seem to have preferred until that point?
* Why do other vampires call him "the great warrior"?
For Aidan/Kat, I loved watching them geek out together over history, and I loved the moments when they tried to protect each other, whether from bad ex-boyfriends or sketchy werewolf thugs. Obviously there were a bunch of issues with their relationship, what with the memory manipulation and the semi-accidental murder of Kat's ex, not to mention Aidan's long history of killing and his tendency to slip up a couple of times a year, but since canon dealt with that by having Kat (wisely!) dump Aidan, I'm perfectly happy to ignore all of those things in favour of the more typical problems a romantic couple might face. I would really love to see a little more of the two of them interacting, either while they're still happily dating or the two of them meeting again after they break up. (The latter would likely involve selectively editing or otherwise hand-waving away chunks of season 4, which I'm perfectly happy for you to do. Want to pretend the whole ghost story didn't happen, or that things went more smoothly with Kenny? Go for it.)
Aidan/Suren was also a mess, for different reasons, before finally ending in tragedy. How did they get to that point of mutual self-sacrifice? How did Aidan reconcile a relationship with a vampire who had no problems killing? What was their relationship like in earlier eras? What drew him to Suren this time?
Additional DNWS: I'd rather not receive Aidan/Bishop. Also, I preferred Aidan and Sally as friends, so while mentioning their relationship is fine, I'd rather it not be the primary focus of the story. Finally, I don't want Kat dying because of Aidan, either at his hands or killed by someone related to him (e.g., a werewolf or a vampire looking for revenge).
Possible shippy prompts:
* Aidan demonstrating a surprisingly detailed knowledge of local history or Kat trying to find out where he gets some of this very specific historical information.
* Meeting Kat's family or her colleagues.
* Going on a trip together.
* Something happens that forces Aidan to reveal that he can see ghosts, or that magic is real and he knows a little about it, or maybe some physical altercation takes place where he pushes the edge of human physical abilities a little, leading Kat to realize that there's something unusual about him without necessarily jumping to "vampire."
* Aidan and Kat run into each other post-series and end up trapped together-trapped in a broken elevator or held hostage together in a bank or snowed in at the same small in or whatever-giving them a chance to talk and forcing them to rely on each other.
* Post-series, Kat or someone she knows-a student, a family member-finds themselves in some sort of supernatural trouble involving ghosts or witches or family curses and Kat reluctantly calls on Aidan because he's the only one she knows who might be able to help.
* Was Aidan intended by Mother or the Dutch to be a stabilizing force for Suren when she took over, before he walked away from the vampire community?
* How did he feel about supervising her reawakening?
* What would have happened if he had been allowed to walk away?
Back to general preferences
The Collector (Canada TV)
Requested Characters: Morgan Pym, Maya Kandinski
Sign-up Request: I'd love to see a story that explores Morgan and Maya's relationship after Maya finds out the truth about who Morgan is and what he does. Maybe something that answers some of the questions left unanswered at the end of the show, or that finally resolves their UST, or just a client-of-the-week case where Maya's knowing the truth enables her to help Morgan in some way or where she learns more about his life and past experiences. Gen, UST, and full-out ship fic would all be awesome.
If you want to go in a completely different direction, I'd enjoy something about Morgan's hobby as a medical researcher. How does he gain access to the resources he needs? What other medical advances has he made over the years? Or maybe just something about how Morgan fills his time-all those sleepless nights!-apart from the work he does for the devil. Or a story from Morgan's past where he managed to form a human connection or thwart the devil in some small way would be great too. If you want to go this route, you don't have to include Maya.
The Collector is a Canadian TV show about a former monk who spent centuries reluctantly sending people to hell after their ten-year deals expired, but who managed at the start of the series to gain permission from the devil to try to save his clients from their fate by helping them make up for the harm they did. I enjoyed it for the historical flashbacks, for the interesting and sometimes troubling worldbuilding (how is it fair that someone can be sent to hell just because someone else explains the deal system to them?), and because Morgan didn't always succeed. Sometimes he saved his client, sometimes he didn't, and you never knew which you were going to get.
Morgan can be difficult at times-overly secretive even when he doesn't need to be and angry in situations where a lighter touch might be more effective-but I really admire his persistence in trying to save others despite having no hope that he'll ever achieve salvation himself, and I love that he's managed to hold on to optimism and hope and faith in people despite everything he's seen. I also admire that he's essentially chosen to stand alone: reluctantly working with the devil because he must, but not really on heaven's or hell's side.
Maya is awesome in her stubborn efforts to rebuild her life. I love that she's trying hard not to waste the second chance she's been given, and I really admire her courage in being willing to go to hell early to save someone else. I'd like to see her succeed at creating the life she wants, whether or not that includes Morgan.
I really liked that the show found a way for Maya to find out what Morgan does and stick around afterward, and I'd love to see more follow-up on what happens after Maya learns the truth, seeing her learn more about what collectors do, or hearing stories about Morgan's past, or just making use of the fact that Maya is the only person Morgan sees regularly who knows the truth. What does it mean for Morgan to have someone he can talk to? What does it mean for Maya to know what's going on? How much does Morgan tell her about his past? Does Maya ever meet any of the other people Morgan has saved? Etc.
From a ship perspective, Maya and Morgan's relationship tends to run hot and cold, largely due to Morgan pulling away at key moments and confessing his love at the most inconvenient times, like just before pushing the button to send Maya to hell. I'd enjoy seeing something that addresses that. Is it Morgan's attempt to protect Maya from the devil? From himself? Is he not used to the idea yet that he can talk to her without sending her to hell? Is there something else going on? Can they achieve an equal relationship given the way things started? Even if they don't end up together, it would be interesting to see them talk about their relationship.
If you're feeling particularly ambitious, I'd adore seeing someone address one of the many plotlines left dangling after cancellation. Why did the devil choose Morgan in the first place? Why even create collectors given that Morgan's clients seen to end up in hell whether or not he actively sends them there? Why did the devil agreed to let Morgan try to save people? (Morgan keeps insisting to people that the devil always wins. Is the devil somehow winning here too?) What role does heaven play in all of this? Will Morgan ever achieve salvation? Why did the devil want Morgan to take Maya to Europe? What's Gabriel's role in all of this? I'm okay with leaving Maya out of this kind of story if the plot doesn't lend itself to her presence, but if you can find a space for her, that's great too.
Possible prompts:
* Morgan and Maya finally go on a proper date.
* A birthday or holiday celebration.
* Maya convinces a reluctant Morgan to play truth or dare.
* Morgan is temporarily seconded to the side of heaven to play bodyguard.
* How does Morgan actually run tests for his medical experiments?
* Morgan, a client, the pandemic. Morgan is immune, of course, but how does his client make amends when everyone is in lockdown? (And how familiar must all of this feel to Morgan?)
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Covert Affairs
Requested Characters: Eyal Lavin, Annie Walker
Sign-up Request: I'd love a story where Annie and Eyal finally get together. Maybe an extended undercover assignment or a near-miss during a mission leads to certain realizations. Maybe one of them confesses their feelings under the influence of truth serum. Maybe a family member does some matchmaking. Maybe the world as we know it ends and other considerations no longer matter. Maybe they find their way to each other post-series.
If you're not in the mood to write shipfic, something that focuses on their friendship and their willingness to do just about anything for each other would be great: a shared mission or a small favour or a secret confessed or a wilderness survival journey or Annie finally visits Eyal's boat or whatever else you come up with.
Covert Affairs is a show about a young woman with a talent for languages who joins the CIA following a failed love affairs and discovers she's very, very good at being a spy-and, of course, about the equally competent Mossad agent she periodically runs into in the field. The first time I watched Covert Affairs, I was all about Annie/Auggie, but a selective rewatch won me over to Annie/Eyal. I love their banter, their easy ability to keep up with each other in the field, and the minor, often complementary, differences in how they do things: Eyal's professional ruthlessness vs. Annie's empathy, Eyal's careful planning vs. Annie's tendency to play it by ear.
The two of them have a lot in common: mutual respect; many, many languages; a shared understanding of the demands of the job; and a willingness to do just about anything for each other. There are also some significant obstacles to a romantic relationship, mostly notably that they're generally in the employ of competing agencies, neither of which would be happy if their agents were discovered to be involved in a serious relationship. Not to mention the possibility that their superiors might decide to leverage their feelings for each other to benefit the organization.
I'd love to see how they finally get together, whether through one of the usual tropes-undercover as a couple and it turns real, or a near-miss or health crisis or faked death leads to certain realizations, or they get trapped together at just the right time to build feelings or force a confession of existing feelings-or whether it's more tailored to their individual experiences. If it's helpful, I really enjoy Eyal's caretaking tendencies when it comes to Annie, cooking for her and tending to her injuries and generally looking out for her safety without trying to stop her from doing her job.
Alternately, jump ahead a bit and show what their life together might look like if they did find a way to be together. Do they both quit and start their own security business? Do they sail off into the sunset on Eyal's boat (with visits back to Israel for Avi)? Do they try to find a way to have it all?
I'm agnostic on whether you want to address the professional difficulties of a relationship between them and how they deal with that (Hide the relationship? Make the case to Joan and Rivka that it's actually beneficial to both agencies? Walk away from their jobs?) or whether you set the story when it at a point when it doesn't matter or leave it as a discussion for another day.
Additional DNWs: Normally I'm good with killing off anyone, but for this particular request, I'd rather Annie and Eyal both be alive at the end of the fic, or at least not dead of anything besides old age. Feel free to kill them along the way, though, as long as you resurrect them by the end. And feel free to kill off anyone else you like.
Possible prompts:
* One of them gets dosed with truth serum while undercover together (or when they run into each other while undercover separately) and the other has to help cover for them to prevent discovery while still completing the mission.
* Someone is targeting Eyal's family, and a mole in Mossad means he can't rely on them, so he turns to Annie for help.
* One of them is presumed dead on a mission, and later turns up seeking help from the other.
* Major world disaster/apocalypse (alien invasion? major war? an AI takes over?). Annie and Eyal are both survivors. Naturally they find each other.
* Work and/or old enemies invade a date/family time/a holiday celebration/a wedding celebration (their own or someone else's).
* Someone, either one of them or someone they care about, has been poisoned and they have to try to find the cure.
* Held captive together, tending injuries, keeping each other's spirits up, and trying to find a way to escape.
* Circumstances force Annie to introduce Eyal to her (helpfully matchmaking?) sister.
* The morning after an unplanned night of passion.
* More of Eyal cooking for Annie.
* Borrowing from
justmarriedexchange, Annie and Eyal get stuck in a time loop, fall in love, and decide to get married in one cycle, just for fun, only to have the time loop abruptly end.
* Alternately, Annie and Eyal get trapped in a time loop where they're racing to prevent a geopolitical catastrophe-or a more personal tragedy.
Regarding Eyal's name: The canonical AO3 tag says "Lavine," but the show uses "Lavin." See here, for example, or here. Now that I've noticed, I can't unsee it, so I would adore it if you'd use the correct spelling in the story itself, if it comes up. (Using the canonical tag is fine, of course.) Apparently the canonical tag has been fixed. :)
Back to general preferences This entry was originally posted at https://skieswideopen.dreamwidth.org/265745.html, where it has
comments. Comments are equally welcome on either entry.