Keep Hoping Machine Running (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thefourthvine) wrote2021-10-14 09:03 am
thefourthvine) wrote2021-10-14 09:03 am
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Yuletide Dear Author Letter
Dear Writer,
Hi!
I am going to provide you with all the details, because that is who I am as a person. Thank you so, so much for writing in one of these tiny fandoms. See you on the 25th!
Likes/DNWs
I love so many things! Here is a small sample:
So that's the general stuff. Let's talk fandoms.
Between Silk and Cyanide RPF, Leo Marks, Forest “Tommy” Yeo-Thomas
Request:I love codebreaking, I love spies, I love two people working together to do something very difficult, so obviously I love Leo and Tommy. I would be delighted for ship fic at any point in their story. Before Arquebuse, when Leo is absolutely wrecked to see Tommy go? After Arquebuse, when Leo is absolutely thrilled that he’s back? During or around the fight before Marie-Claire, or Tommy’s whole, uh, situation at that point? Or, of course, after he comes back following that final ill-fated drop into France? Or how about after the war, when Tommy returns to France and Leo is writing and they’re both out of the war but with a lot of memories they can’t really discuss with most people? I’d love to see a reunion when they are older and, well, possibly wiser. Hard to say with these guys.
I'd also by fascinated by a they-both-stay-in AU, with or without the pairing. Obviously leaving the was the right choice for Leo, and I'm glad he did, and yet -- I'm always curious.
(Also, I know there’s a lot of additional canon about Tommy especially -- James Bond and The White Rabbit and all that. I’m really only interested in the BSAC version of him, though.)
Additional Information: I love WWII codebreaking stuff, and I have read very, very many books on the topic. Leo Marks’s memoir is my surprise favorite. His feelings, even though he was writing years after the fact, come off of every page, and he knows how to tell a story and make it good. I love that he cares so much, I love that he’s basically vibrating with imposter syndrome even as he accomplishes impossible thing after impossible thing, I love that he’s so out of his depth in the politics of the intelligence world, I love how fighty he is even as he calls himself a coward, I love how he trains himself an army of codebreakers at Grendon and forces the SOE to use decent codes very much against their will. I love how much he loves all the spies I love, too (even if it totally breaks him). And his relationship with Tommy is -- well. “I had never met anyone I trusted so completely or whose trust I valued more” is how Leo sums it up, and honestly that’s an understatement. Even when he was writing his memoir decades after the war, his hearteyes were absolutely visible in every line he wrote about him. (The part where he says Tommy’s hand is still on his shoulder -- WOW, sir.)
I also love Tommy, with his continental flair (he was a director of Molyneux’s fashion house before the war and stole his yacht during it, and that is style for real) and his fearlessness and dedication and absolutely absurd life. I also love how he acknowledges that Leo is something special in the SOE — a person who actually cares very deeply about his job AND is extremely good at it — and tries so hard to teach him how to play the game (and also learns a little about codes from him). I love how hurt Tommy is when he realizes Leo kept something from him -- he expected no secrets! From a codebreaker! Which shows that he was emotionally compromised, too.
(By the way, in re: the rest of the spies. Noor is my favorite, always, but I love Odette and Violette and Alec and Peter and all the rest, and I’m always happy to see more of them! But I’d appreciate it if their appearances in your fic, if any, were kept to their pre-departure selves, because most of them died horribly and tragically and … honestly, it’s too sad for Yuletide. So my ideal focus here is definitely codebreaking and the British side of the channel. If you’re looking for other, non-spy characters to include, I absolutely adore Vera Atkins and Joan Dodd.)
If you want to pick this fandom up, the book is unfortunately expensive, but it is available in both print and ebook forms, and it may be available from your local library as well.
Burning Kingdoms -- Tasha Suri, Worldbuilding (Burning Kingdoms)
Request: I very much love The Jasmine Throne, including all the characters who are alive at the end of the book (favorites are definitely Bhumika, Malini, and Priya), but I was absolutely riveted by the concept of the Nameless, with their prophetic birth names that are never spoken aloud until the Right Moment. I would love, love, love some worldbuilding fic about that and how it works. Pretty much any angle is fine, but here are some ideas.
I’d love to hear more about some other names people have had. I loved the detail about Rao’s aunt who had the name that was fifteen pages of information about irrigation practices, and I would be fascinated to know what it’s like to have a name that just is Destined for Mediocrity or His Pants Will Split at a Key Moment or just a prophecy about something unrelated to you that the Nameless God had to get out there and you were available. I’d also love to know what it’s like to have a momentous name where the Right Moment comes early, and then you have, you know, another bunch of decades to live (you hope!) knowing your biggest moment, the thing your god presumably put you in the world to do, is behind you, and you have to make your own meaning.
I’d also absolutely adore some stuff on the mechanics of it all. Are their names just magically implanted in their brains or do they have to memorize them, and if they do, how? How do the priests of the Nameless do what they do? What about the god himself -- what is his real name? What does speaking it aloud do? And I’m so, so interested in Alor itself, and what a society built around this religion must look like. Feel free to set it in the past of the series or the future of it, whatever takes your fancy.
And document-style fic is absolutely great with me. A travel guide to Alor by a writer from beyond the Burning Kingdoms would be fabulous, for example.
Pretty much the only canon characters I can see working with this request are Rao, Alori, the king of Alor, and the Nameless God, and I would be delighted to hear more about any of them if they fit into whatever worldbuilding thing you choose to write about. (I can also see a visit to Alor maybe working with some of the canon characters, and if you choose to do that, I would be happy with it!) I am also happy to meet OCs. My main focus here is just worldbuilding, because oh man oh man I am into this concept SO much.
(I know the canon is not exactly puppies and flowers, and I am okay with a level of violence/sadness/etc commensurate with the canon. But I would really love a happy ending to your story.)
Additional Information: I have adored everything I’ve read by Tasha Suri, and The Jasmine Throne was no exception. Prickly, morally grey women who love each other but love their goals more! A plot to overthrow an evil emperor! Some of the most fascinating magic systems I’ve read about! The book is amazing, and I’m eager for the next books in the series.
But in the meantime, I so very much want to hear more about some of the amazing concepts Suri created for this series. And since I love names and name magic and religion, the thing I want most is Alor -- its religion and naming practices and how its society works, given their, well, everything. We see glimpses through Rao’s eyes, but I would love more.
(PS: If you do write Rao -- I believe in my heart that he loved Prem romantically, and Prem, uh, could not return that for Spoilery Reasons. It’d be nice to see him get a happy ending with someone else!)
Men’s Basketball RPF, Earvin Johnson, Larry Bird
Request: I -- genuinely think Magic Johnson and Larry Bird might have soulbonded at the NCAA Championship in 1979. They certainly went from zero to intense, eternal focus pretty damn quickly. So what I want to know is -- what happened? Where did it go from there? How does that work, when you're playing against each other, when one of you doesn't even LIKE the other, when you're such incredibly different human beings?
If you go with the actual soulbond, there are lots of interesting possibilities here: Larry fighting the bond because of course he would, the way it affected them and their game, how it drove them to play. Or you could talk about how they finally accepted the soulbond and what it's like now, being comfortable with it and each other, years after the fighting and the struggle finally ended. Just, anything.
And if you take the non-soulbond route (which is of course entirely welcome; this definitely doesn't have to be a literal soulbond), just what IS going on? They have SOME kind of bond, that much is clear, and I'd love to hear what it's like: forever friendship, repeating reincarnation as people obsessed with each other, multiverse-spanning romance, whatever. I just want more about this intense *thing* they have.
I'm good with gen, slash, and poly. Just please no straight-up infidelity. There's always unmarried AUs, or setting the sex before the marriage, or spousal knowledge and consent, or spousal involvement. Or something else you come up with! LET THE MAGIC (hee!) OF BIRD AND JOHNSON GUIDE YOU, basically.
Additional information: Okay, I am a trifle concerned that my request makes me sound like an exceptionally weird tinhat. No! No! I am merely reporting the truth, which is that Magic Johnson and Larry Bird appear to have a real-life soulbond!
...That didn't help my case. But I have solid evidence. The documentary A Courtship of Rivals (YouTube link to full documentary, but you only need to watch the first ten minutes to see the literal discussion of the soulbond) could not be clearer. These guys are bonded in some way. And I just find that fascinating. You could not have two more different people playing the same game. You could not have a more intense rivalry. And yet it's abundantly clear they have a ton of respect for each other, a ton of very genuine love for each other, and they know each other so well -- every appearance I've ever seen them in has just been so great for that. We have Magic, dude who loves people, hugs, and fame, and Larry, dude whose basic approach to life is "go away and leave me alone because I have a lot of very important scowling to do," and they love each other, and that is the greatest thing to me.
Basically, I adore these guys. And I am riveted by their great and weird relationship. Anything you write about them navigating that relationship while being their extremely awesome selves will be wonderful.
And if you're up for pairing fic, I would absolutely love that, any rating.
To pick this fandom up, watch that documentary. Marvel at its dedication to pushing the soulbond storyline while somehow still being a real documentary!
(Note: I have been given DELIGHTFUL fic in this fandom, but I always want more, because -- seriously, there is no end to the amount that I would read and love about Magic and Bird.
Moneyball, Billy Beane, Peter Brand
Request: I am hoping for some solid "it’s the two of us against the world and oh shit it turns out we have Feelings and also sex" action here. Late at night in the clubhouse? Absolutely. Sexuality discovery that Billy absolutely does not have time for except, whoops, sometimes you have to make time even when you have a whole team to build and hold together? Definitely. Peter teaching more than just stats? Again, yes please. Peter being like, hey, maybe it’s time to move on after your divorce, and Billy being like, well, it’s not that simple because do you have any idea what being gay would be like in baseball? Definitely.
I would also be made so, so happy by any, like, ten years later reunion, when they’re both older and wiser and Peter’s figured out exactly what his hero worship was about and Billy’s likewise figured out that that those weren’t mentorship feelings he was having, exactly. Basically: Awkward conversations! Mutual revelations! Feelings! Banging! Or any other way you want to squish these two together and give them a happily ever after.
I’d adore statistics content, because let’s face it: statistics is kiiiiind of their love language, and I super love that, so any way you want to throw in some stats, yes please. And baseball is their other love language, so I am also delighted for that to show up if you so choose.
If you’re thinking tropes, I’ll be honest: I am, too. Fake dating would work so well here — Billy taking Peter to a party at his ex-wife’s so he won’t be the only one there with no one to talk to, Peter taking Billy out to dinner with his parents who don’t really understand anything about his life, anything like that sounds fabulous. Bodyswap also seems like it would work amazingly well here, and hurt/comfort, and kidfic. (There is a kid in the canon, after all.) Get tropey if that’s your bliss! Just please no AUs for this fandom.
(Note: I’m strictly thinking of the movie canon here, since Peter’s not a real person or even in the book. No need to use book characterization or anything!)
Additional Information: So my wife watched this this year (LOOK, we’ve been busy, and also we’d both read the book and gone “no way can you make a movie out of that,” although I am pleased to have been wrong). Afterwards, she came to me all, “I checked and there’s not really any slash for this and I’m so confused?” Obviously, I immediately watched it, and I fully concurred.
I mean. These are two dudes who are instantly drawn together! They are the only ones who believe in what they’re doing! They spend all their time together! They sort of learn to read each other’s minds! It’s them against everyone else in their field! They are outsiders together and they CHANGE BASEBALL. It just has very, very classic slash vibes for me, and I am hoping for some very classic slash from this fandom.
If you’re looking to pick this up, your local streaming service might have it! That’s where we watched it.
Nomads (1986) — Eileen Flax, Veronique Pommier
Request: These women have, by the end of the movie, a relationship that was made for fic, and so I’m hoping for something set after the movie. How do things go when you simultaneously remember someone as your new friend made while surviving a terrible ordeal and your beloved wife? What’s it like when you’re on the run with someone you barely know except she also has the memories of the person you know and love best in the world?
And there’s also the issue of practical matters. How do they live? Eileen’s ability to practice medicine is going to be somewhat limited, at least at first, since being on the run from supernatural evil tends to inhibit your ability to obtain a license and a job. Does she become a doctor for people with paranormal maladies, or for supernatural people, or just for other people on the run? And what does Veronique, who came to this country hoping for some peaceful downtime and did not at all get that do after the trauma of the movie?
I would be delighted with relationship fic. I would be delighted with them turning around and taking the battle to the Nomads. I would be delighted with them encountering a new kind of evil and becoming a two-woman, three-sets-of-memories supernatural detection team. I just want to know how things go after the movie ends for these two. And please please please give them some kind of happily ever after, or the potential for one.
Additional information:For me, this movie is essentially one long prologue to fic. Like, okay, I’m sorry, but Eileen literally has Veronique’s dead husband’s memories and they literally drive off into the sunset together to make a new life. I just ... feel like that needs exploring, you know? I mean, yay Nomads, yay vaguely creepy paranormal whatever, but what of the relationship?
And these are two fascinating women. Veronique takes in a woman who is apparently insane and ranting and who seems to know her dead husband way too well and is incredibly kind to her, even though Niki’s life is, at that point, SUPER not going well. And Eileen is this analytical, problem-solving person who is going to find out what happened and fix this problem even if it, you know, destroys her life and drives her insane. (Also, her first thought when she wakes up in Veronique’s bed is apparently “Wait, did we have sex?” I am just saying. It was not far from Eileen’s mind. And Veronique clearly knew that. The possibility is there.) They are both willing to burn down lives they loved to stay alive, and I believe that means they can build something new in the ashes. I love them both, and hope they find happiness on the other side of their Nomad-Related Life Implosion.
This is technically a horror movie, but a) it’s so non-horrifying that I, a noted wimp, can watch it even after dark (except the deeply creepy abbey/nun sequence, because I am still a wimp) and b) I’m not really here for the horror aspect. I mean, okay, vaguely punkish Nomads acting like people in a gang in a movie, memory stealing, fine, that’s all good. But. Well. It’s not actually my main interest. My interest is in how people survive events this weird, how they make new lives after surviving, and how it all affects them.
I will be happy with any rating you care to write on this one. If you’re going to write a pairing, I’m only really interested in Eileen/Veronique HEA here. (But I am VERY interested in that!)
If you want to pick this up — well, it’s definitely available for rental on Amazon. And there’s also this copy, although I cannot vouch for its quality, on YouTube.
Hi!
I am going to provide you with all the details, because that is who I am as a person. Thank you so, so much for writing in one of these tiny fandoms. See you on the 25th!
Likes/DNWs
I love so many things! Here is a small sample:
- Happy endings. (Um, I mean of the everyone lives happily ever after kind. Although I am also a big fan of orgasms, not gonna lie.)
- Humor.
- Slow burn romances and slow build sex scenes.
- Action and adventure.
- Mysteries, heists, spies, casefic.
- Snappy dialogue.
- Classic fan fiction tropes, whether played straight or inverted. (Soulbonds! Bodyswap! Arranged marriages! Fake dating! Amnesia! And so on.)
- Families (found, biological, synthetic, hologrammatic, whatever) being good to each other.
- People who have problems with feelings.
- Pining and denial, especially of the I-am-definitely-not-feeling-anything kind.
- Hurt/comfort.
- Worldbuilding, especially religious worldbuilding.
- Every rating. I'm happy to get G up through NC-17, so go with whatever works best for you!
- Animal and child harm or death. These are my dealbreakers; I can't handle them at all.
- Rape.
- The abuse of women.
- Infidelity. (FULLY here for any kind of arrangement that has the consent of all involved, or for unpartnered AUs.)
- Public humiliation.
- Zombies and cannibalism.
- Character death or characters with cancer or other non-canon terminal or degenerative diseases.
- Pairings with huge power imbalances -- teacher/student, doctor/patient, etc -- or a male/female power imbalance with the woman on the less powerful end.
- Christmas fic. (Other religious holidays are very welcome in canons with characters who practice those religions, like Between Silk and Cyanide, and fictional/fantasy holidays are great in fantasy canons, like Burning Kingdoms.)
- Mommy/Daddy/little kink.
- Unhappy endings.
So that's the general stuff. Let's talk fandoms.
Between Silk and Cyanide RPF, Leo Marks, Forest “Tommy” Yeo-Thomas
Request:I love codebreaking, I love spies, I love two people working together to do something very difficult, so obviously I love Leo and Tommy. I would be delighted for ship fic at any point in their story. Before Arquebuse, when Leo is absolutely wrecked to see Tommy go? After Arquebuse, when Leo is absolutely thrilled that he’s back? During or around the fight before Marie-Claire, or Tommy’s whole, uh, situation at that point? Or, of course, after he comes back following that final ill-fated drop into France? Or how about after the war, when Tommy returns to France and Leo is writing and they’re both out of the war but with a lot of memories they can’t really discuss with most people? I’d love to see a reunion when they are older and, well, possibly wiser. Hard to say with these guys.
I'd also by fascinated by a they-both-stay-in AU, with or without the pairing. Obviously leaving the was the right choice for Leo, and I'm glad he did, and yet -- I'm always curious.
(Also, I know there’s a lot of additional canon about Tommy especially -- James Bond and The White Rabbit and all that. I’m really only interested in the BSAC version of him, though.)
Additional Information: I love WWII codebreaking stuff, and I have read very, very many books on the topic. Leo Marks’s memoir is my surprise favorite. His feelings, even though he was writing years after the fact, come off of every page, and he knows how to tell a story and make it good. I love that he cares so much, I love that he’s basically vibrating with imposter syndrome even as he accomplishes impossible thing after impossible thing, I love that he’s so out of his depth in the politics of the intelligence world, I love how fighty he is even as he calls himself a coward, I love how he trains himself an army of codebreakers at Grendon and forces the SOE to use decent codes very much against their will. I love how much he loves all the spies I love, too (even if it totally breaks him). And his relationship with Tommy is -- well. “I had never met anyone I trusted so completely or whose trust I valued more” is how Leo sums it up, and honestly that’s an understatement. Even when he was writing his memoir decades after the war, his hearteyes were absolutely visible in every line he wrote about him. (The part where he says Tommy’s hand is still on his shoulder -- WOW, sir.)
I also love Tommy, with his continental flair (he was a director of Molyneux’s fashion house before the war and stole his yacht during it, and that is style for real) and his fearlessness and dedication and absolutely absurd life. I also love how he acknowledges that Leo is something special in the SOE — a person who actually cares very deeply about his job AND is extremely good at it — and tries so hard to teach him how to play the game (and also learns a little about codes from him). I love how hurt Tommy is when he realizes Leo kept something from him -- he expected no secrets! From a codebreaker! Which shows that he was emotionally compromised, too.
(By the way, in re: the rest of the spies. Noor is my favorite, always, but I love Odette and Violette and Alec and Peter and all the rest, and I’m always happy to see more of them! But I’d appreciate it if their appearances in your fic, if any, were kept to their pre-departure selves, because most of them died horribly and tragically and … honestly, it’s too sad for Yuletide. So my ideal focus here is definitely codebreaking and the British side of the channel. If you’re looking for other, non-spy characters to include, I absolutely adore Vera Atkins and Joan Dodd.)
If you want to pick this fandom up, the book is unfortunately expensive, but it is available in both print and ebook forms, and it may be available from your local library as well.
Burning Kingdoms -- Tasha Suri, Worldbuilding (Burning Kingdoms)
Request: I very much love The Jasmine Throne, including all the characters who are alive at the end of the book (favorites are definitely Bhumika, Malini, and Priya), but I was absolutely riveted by the concept of the Nameless, with their prophetic birth names that are never spoken aloud until the Right Moment. I would love, love, love some worldbuilding fic about that and how it works. Pretty much any angle is fine, but here are some ideas.
I’d love to hear more about some other names people have had. I loved the detail about Rao’s aunt who had the name that was fifteen pages of information about irrigation practices, and I would be fascinated to know what it’s like to have a name that just is Destined for Mediocrity or His Pants Will Split at a Key Moment or just a prophecy about something unrelated to you that the Nameless God had to get out there and you were available. I’d also love to know what it’s like to have a momentous name where the Right Moment comes early, and then you have, you know, another bunch of decades to live (you hope!) knowing your biggest moment, the thing your god presumably put you in the world to do, is behind you, and you have to make your own meaning.
I’d also absolutely adore some stuff on the mechanics of it all. Are their names just magically implanted in their brains or do they have to memorize them, and if they do, how? How do the priests of the Nameless do what they do? What about the god himself -- what is his real name? What does speaking it aloud do? And I’m so, so interested in Alor itself, and what a society built around this religion must look like. Feel free to set it in the past of the series or the future of it, whatever takes your fancy.
And document-style fic is absolutely great with me. A travel guide to Alor by a writer from beyond the Burning Kingdoms would be fabulous, for example.
Pretty much the only canon characters I can see working with this request are Rao, Alori, the king of Alor, and the Nameless God, and I would be delighted to hear more about any of them if they fit into whatever worldbuilding thing you choose to write about. (I can also see a visit to Alor maybe working with some of the canon characters, and if you choose to do that, I would be happy with it!) I am also happy to meet OCs. My main focus here is just worldbuilding, because oh man oh man I am into this concept SO much.
(I know the canon is not exactly puppies and flowers, and I am okay with a level of violence/sadness/etc commensurate with the canon. But I would really love a happy ending to your story.)
Additional Information: I have adored everything I’ve read by Tasha Suri, and The Jasmine Throne was no exception. Prickly, morally grey women who love each other but love their goals more! A plot to overthrow an evil emperor! Some of the most fascinating magic systems I’ve read about! The book is amazing, and I’m eager for the next books in the series.
But in the meantime, I so very much want to hear more about some of the amazing concepts Suri created for this series. And since I love names and name magic and religion, the thing I want most is Alor -- its religion and naming practices and how its society works, given their, well, everything. We see glimpses through Rao’s eyes, but I would love more.
(PS: If you do write Rao -- I believe in my heart that he loved Prem romantically, and Prem, uh, could not return that for Spoilery Reasons. It’d be nice to see him get a happy ending with someone else!)
Men’s Basketball RPF, Earvin Johnson, Larry Bird
Request: I -- genuinely think Magic Johnson and Larry Bird might have soulbonded at the NCAA Championship in 1979. They certainly went from zero to intense, eternal focus pretty damn quickly. So what I want to know is -- what happened? Where did it go from there? How does that work, when you're playing against each other, when one of you doesn't even LIKE the other, when you're such incredibly different human beings?
If you go with the actual soulbond, there are lots of interesting possibilities here: Larry fighting the bond because of course he would, the way it affected them and their game, how it drove them to play. Or you could talk about how they finally accepted the soulbond and what it's like now, being comfortable with it and each other, years after the fighting and the struggle finally ended. Just, anything.
And if you take the non-soulbond route (which is of course entirely welcome; this definitely doesn't have to be a literal soulbond), just what IS going on? They have SOME kind of bond, that much is clear, and I'd love to hear what it's like: forever friendship, repeating reincarnation as people obsessed with each other, multiverse-spanning romance, whatever. I just want more about this intense *thing* they have.
I'm good with gen, slash, and poly. Just please no straight-up infidelity. There's always unmarried AUs, or setting the sex before the marriage, or spousal knowledge and consent, or spousal involvement. Or something else you come up with! LET THE MAGIC (hee!) OF BIRD AND JOHNSON GUIDE YOU, basically.
Additional information: Okay, I am a trifle concerned that my request makes me sound like an exceptionally weird tinhat. No! No! I am merely reporting the truth, which is that Magic Johnson and Larry Bird appear to have a real-life soulbond!
...That didn't help my case. But I have solid evidence. The documentary A Courtship of Rivals (YouTube link to full documentary, but you only need to watch the first ten minutes to see the literal discussion of the soulbond) could not be clearer. These guys are bonded in some way. And I just find that fascinating. You could not have two more different people playing the same game. You could not have a more intense rivalry. And yet it's abundantly clear they have a ton of respect for each other, a ton of very genuine love for each other, and they know each other so well -- every appearance I've ever seen them in has just been so great for that. We have Magic, dude who loves people, hugs, and fame, and Larry, dude whose basic approach to life is "go away and leave me alone because I have a lot of very important scowling to do," and they love each other, and that is the greatest thing to me.
Basically, I adore these guys. And I am riveted by their great and weird relationship. Anything you write about them navigating that relationship while being their extremely awesome selves will be wonderful.
And if you're up for pairing fic, I would absolutely love that, any rating.
To pick this fandom up, watch that documentary. Marvel at its dedication to pushing the soulbond storyline while somehow still being a real documentary!
(Note: I have been given DELIGHTFUL fic in this fandom, but I always want more, because -- seriously, there is no end to the amount that I would read and love about Magic and Bird.
Moneyball, Billy Beane, Peter Brand
Request: I am hoping for some solid "it’s the two of us against the world and oh shit it turns out we have Feelings and also sex" action here. Late at night in the clubhouse? Absolutely. Sexuality discovery that Billy absolutely does not have time for except, whoops, sometimes you have to make time even when you have a whole team to build and hold together? Definitely. Peter teaching more than just stats? Again, yes please. Peter being like, hey, maybe it’s time to move on after your divorce, and Billy being like, well, it’s not that simple because do you have any idea what being gay would be like in baseball? Definitely.
I would also be made so, so happy by any, like, ten years later reunion, when they’re both older and wiser and Peter’s figured out exactly what his hero worship was about and Billy’s likewise figured out that that those weren’t mentorship feelings he was having, exactly. Basically: Awkward conversations! Mutual revelations! Feelings! Banging! Or any other way you want to squish these two together and give them a happily ever after.
I’d adore statistics content, because let’s face it: statistics is kiiiiind of their love language, and I super love that, so any way you want to throw in some stats, yes please. And baseball is their other love language, so I am also delighted for that to show up if you so choose.
If you’re thinking tropes, I’ll be honest: I am, too. Fake dating would work so well here — Billy taking Peter to a party at his ex-wife’s so he won’t be the only one there with no one to talk to, Peter taking Billy out to dinner with his parents who don’t really understand anything about his life, anything like that sounds fabulous. Bodyswap also seems like it would work amazingly well here, and hurt/comfort, and kidfic. (There is a kid in the canon, after all.) Get tropey if that’s your bliss! Just please no AUs for this fandom.
(Note: I’m strictly thinking of the movie canon here, since Peter’s not a real person or even in the book. No need to use book characterization or anything!)
Additional Information: So my wife watched this this year (LOOK, we’ve been busy, and also we’d both read the book and gone “no way can you make a movie out of that,” although I am pleased to have been wrong). Afterwards, she came to me all, “I checked and there’s not really any slash for this and I’m so confused?” Obviously, I immediately watched it, and I fully concurred.
I mean. These are two dudes who are instantly drawn together! They are the only ones who believe in what they’re doing! They spend all their time together! They sort of learn to read each other’s minds! It’s them against everyone else in their field! They are outsiders together and they CHANGE BASEBALL. It just has very, very classic slash vibes for me, and I am hoping for some very classic slash from this fandom.
If you’re looking to pick this up, your local streaming service might have it! That’s where we watched it.
Nomads (1986) — Eileen Flax, Veronique Pommier
Request: These women have, by the end of the movie, a relationship that was made for fic, and so I’m hoping for something set after the movie. How do things go when you simultaneously remember someone as your new friend made while surviving a terrible ordeal and your beloved wife? What’s it like when you’re on the run with someone you barely know except she also has the memories of the person you know and love best in the world?
And there’s also the issue of practical matters. How do they live? Eileen’s ability to practice medicine is going to be somewhat limited, at least at first, since being on the run from supernatural evil tends to inhibit your ability to obtain a license and a job. Does she become a doctor for people with paranormal maladies, or for supernatural people, or just for other people on the run? And what does Veronique, who came to this country hoping for some peaceful downtime and did not at all get that do after the trauma of the movie?
I would be delighted with relationship fic. I would be delighted with them turning around and taking the battle to the Nomads. I would be delighted with them encountering a new kind of evil and becoming a two-woman, three-sets-of-memories supernatural detection team. I just want to know how things go after the movie ends for these two. And please please please give them some kind of happily ever after, or the potential for one.
Additional information:For me, this movie is essentially one long prologue to fic. Like, okay, I’m sorry, but Eileen literally has Veronique’s dead husband’s memories and they literally drive off into the sunset together to make a new life. I just ... feel like that needs exploring, you know? I mean, yay Nomads, yay vaguely creepy paranormal whatever, but what of the relationship?
And these are two fascinating women. Veronique takes in a woman who is apparently insane and ranting and who seems to know her dead husband way too well and is incredibly kind to her, even though Niki’s life is, at that point, SUPER not going well. And Eileen is this analytical, problem-solving person who is going to find out what happened and fix this problem even if it, you know, destroys her life and drives her insane. (Also, her first thought when she wakes up in Veronique’s bed is apparently “Wait, did we have sex?” I am just saying. It was not far from Eileen’s mind. And Veronique clearly knew that. The possibility is there.) They are both willing to burn down lives they loved to stay alive, and I believe that means they can build something new in the ashes. I love them both, and hope they find happiness on the other side of their Nomad-Related Life Implosion.
This is technically a horror movie, but a) it’s so non-horrifying that I, a noted wimp, can watch it even after dark (except the deeply creepy abbey/nun sequence, because I am still a wimp) and b) I’m not really here for the horror aspect. I mean, okay, vaguely punkish Nomads acting like people in a gang in a movie, memory stealing, fine, that’s all good. But. Well. It’s not actually my main interest. My interest is in how people survive events this weird, how they make new lives after surviving, and how it all affects them.
I will be happy with any rating you care to write on this one. If you’re going to write a pairing, I’m only really interested in Eileen/Veronique HEA here. (But I am VERY interested in that!)
If you want to pick this up — well, it’s definitely available for rental on Amazon. And there’s also this copy, although I cannot vouch for its quality, on YouTube.