Keep Hoping Machine Running (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thefourthvine) wrote2024-10-05 01:01 pm
thefourthvine) wrote2024-10-05 01:01 pm
Entry tags:
Dear Yuletide Writer 2024
Dear Writer,
Hi!
I am going to provide you with all the details I can, because that is who I am as a person. Thank you so, so much for writing in one of these fandoms. See you on the 25th!
Likes/DNWs and General Stuff
I love so many things! Here is a small sample:
Notes: I have been given DELIGHTFUL fic in some of these fandoms, but I always want more! Also, the size of the sections doesn’t indicate which fandoms I want most or love best; sometimes I have a lot to say about a fandom, but sometimes my brain is just a giant heart emoji about it. I will rejoice to get any of the fandoms here.
I am entirely open to treats of any length!
Between Silk and Cyanide -- Leo Marks, Leo Marks, Forest “Tommy” Yeo-Thomas
Request: I love codebreaking, I love spies, I love extremely competent 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 be fascinated by a they-both-stay-in AU, with or without the pairing. Obviously leaving 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 also the SOE for some reason, so I have read very, very many books on these topics. Leo Marks’s memoir is my surprise favorite of all of them. His feelings, even though he was writing years after the fact, come off of every page, and he knows how to tell a story. 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 though 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 love how much he cares about winning the war and how completely he throws himself into it. I also love how he acknowledges that Leo is something special in the SOE — a person who, like Tommy, 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 and Joan Bright and Margaret Jackson.)
If you want to pick this fandom up, the book is a bit pricey, but it is available in both print and ebook forms, and it may be available from your local library as well.
Fandom-specific DNW exceptions: It’s wartime. There are female spies. I know what happened and it’s not like you can change that. Just please don’t dwell on it? Also, again, it's wartime. People died. Please just don't (permanently) kill anyone who didn't actually die.
Desk Set (1957), Peg Costello, Bunny Watson
Request: I would love for Peg to get a happy ending! That ending could be f/f, it could be OT3 Peg/Sumner/Bunny, it could be her continuing the way she is, it could be her becoming a secret advice columnist (because let’s face it, she was the Voice of Reason on that reference team). If you go for f/f, I would be delighted with Peg/Sylvia or Peg/Bunny.
Equally, I would love future fic or alternate setting fic or basically anything that continues the existing story. My favorite things about Desk Set are the excellent banter, the relationships between Bunny and Sumner and Bunny and Peg, and Bunny’s gleaming competence. If you want to write a modern version of this with the new technological threat being AI, I am also here for that!
Basically, I just want banter, happiness, and fun. Plus optional pairings.
Characters: I would like the story to focus on Peg or Bunny (or both). If you write about Peg, Bunny is optional. If you write about Bunny, Peg is optional.
Additional information: Is Desk Set the perfect movie? Almost! About as close as it was possible to get at the time! It has banter, it has humor, it has Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy with all their chemistry AND genuine respect, it has Bunny Watson. Basically the only things it’s lacking are queerness and people of color. (I cannot BELIEVE they’re out there rebooting random crap and making movies starring CGI monkeys as Robbie Williams when Desk Set is right there.)
And honestly, all I want is more of what’s already perfect about Desk Set: the humor, the banter, the caring, the kindness, the people who genuinely like and respect each other, the wit, the happy ending for all. If I get that and either Peg or Bunny, I’ll be thrilled.
Fandom-specific DNW: Please no uncanonical het.
The Good Place, Michael, Janet, Shawn, Tahani
Request: Everyone gets an ending. Except Michael. I’d love to see more of his afterlife. I assume Shawn and Tahani will design his test and I’d love to hear about that. (What does his neighborhood look like? Who does he end up with? What are his challenges and lessons? Is Shawn still as obsessed with him as he was before his Human Era?) I’d also welcome best-self-Michael’s time in the actual Good Place. (Who did they get to be in charge there after Michael left, if anyone? What’s Michael’s Good Place like and who is there with him? What does he do and how is he different with his post-human perspective?) And I’d also love an encounter with the Good Place Committee, on earth or in any place you care to name. I mean, they went SOMEWHERE. Were they embodied on earth? Did they go hide at Mindy St. Claire’s? I’d love to see Michael happening upon them.
If you want to write a pairing, Michael/Shawn is my preference; they’ve spent eternity fighting each other and being dicks to each other, and now they get to go around again! Do -- do demons have sex? Does an ex-demon human even have an interest in sex? Is an eternity spent flirting enough, or is there more that needs to happen?
And I have to assume Janet will be there just as soon as Michael shuffles off his mortal coil to reunite with her bestie. I’d love hearing about that.
Additional information: I rewatch this show regularly, but mostly I just cry through the last episode. The last time through was the first time I’ve been able to have actual thoughts about it, and my thoughts were: wait. We get EVERY ending. We know how all the major mortal beings end their eternities. We know how all the immortal beings spend their eternities (I’m including Tahani as an immortal, since by the end she clearly has somehow leveled up beyond human). But we don’t know how the once immortal, now mortal entity lives out his life and afterlife.
It was one of those thoughts I just couldn’t unthink, and now I want more. I want to know some part of what happens to Michael after he starts anew, and the few glimpses we get in canon are NOT ENOUGH.
Feel free to add canonical characters with abandon! I love all the characters in this show except Brent and Trevor. (I love Michael mostly because he does, too; he adores these weird flawed humans so much he becomes a weird flawed human.) I’d be happy to see almost anyone. Mindy St. Claire? Absolutely. (How did her eternity go, and did she end up in the same neighborhood as Michael at any point?) Beadie? I’d love to know more! The former Good Place Committee? Yes! Where the heck did they go? Did they ever come back? John? Of course. Love a man who makes a Fucket List and spends eternity banging every last dude on it! Vicky? Naturally, and I bet she’s still as pretentious as ever.
Fandom-specific DNWs: Please don’t contradict any canon endings. Please don't hook Michael up with anyone other than Shawn.
Fandom-specific DNW exception: Death is a huge part of TGP, and it would be tough to write anything I’ve requested without it, so my DNW here is just cancer/degenerative diseases. In other words, if you’re going to write about Michael’s death, maybe a heart attack or something?
Men’s Basketball RPF, Earvin Johnson, Larry Bird
Request: Look. Yes. I think Magic Johnson and Larry Bird might have soulbonded. But the thing is, it almost doesn’t matter. What we have in these two is a very classic “they could not be more different; they could not love each other more” type reality, and what I want is just -- HOW. How does that work?
I would love a story set back in the early days of the rivalry. Larry Bird, Grumpiest Teen Alive, met Magic Johnson, Dude Everyone Loves Because He Loves Everyone, and they -- somehow got along? They somehow got along SO WELL that they became the focus of each other’s basketball? Or they didn’t get along at all and it made absolutely no difference? I don’t know, but I do know I love it.
I would also love a story set in their peak basketball days, when the game was their life and their games revolved around each other, when the rivalry was driving them. I’d love to see the moment Larry Bird realized he, very reluctantly, actually cared a lot about another human being. I’d love to see Magic realizing that of all the people he cares about, he cares about Larry differently.
And I’d love a story set post-retirement as they figure out who they are when they don’t have basketball. Somehow they got to a place where they care about each other and respect each other’s differences. How?
Sex is totally not a requirement, although I would be delighted by it at any point in their timeline.
Additional information: I watched A Courtship of Rivals (YouTube link to full documentary) and just about swooned, and everything I’ve read and watched about these guys since has only increased my swooniness. These guys are so, so weird about each other, so intensely connected, so bonded in whatever way you want to take that. And I just find that fascinating. You could not have two more different people. 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!
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 post-canon. 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 ship 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.
WWI Flying Aces, Frederick Libby, Stephen Price
Request: If you are in the mood to write pairing fic, I would love some tense battlefield sex, or some seize-the-day-we're-on-liberty sex, or some the-war-is-over romance. (And if there was ever a time to take risks and go after what you want, it was while you were a pilot in WWI, or after you’d survived WWI.) If you are in a gen place, I would love some details of battlefield life, with interaction on the ground and maybe some air battles and tactics.
Whatever you choose, happy endings would be awesome, to the extent that this is possible in, you know, a WWI pilot setting. (I picked Libby and Price not just because I enjoyed Libby’s book and their relationship, but because they both lived through the war.) But of course it was a war and there were sad and terrible moments, and I am absolutely fine with you including those. Just. A happy ending for these guys, please.
Additional Information: I love the WWI pilots. They were basically making shit up as they went along. They were in these tiny planes, ones that were not entirely up to technological snuff (like, just as a single example, the Nieuport's wings tended to disintegrate during flight, which is not exactly a minor design flaw), and they were doing something no one had really ever done before. They were inventing tactics and procedures and basically the entire idea of an air war as they were doing it. They were learning on the job, creating the job, and they paid for it by dying, and dying, and dying. (I've read that at one point the average lifespan of a flier was ten hours. I'm hoping that isn't accurate, but I do think it's probably accurate that near the end of the war, when they were burning pilots for photos, the average lifespan was eleven days.) And they still managed to be fairly jaunty and cheerful and at least paste on a good stiff upper lip. They were brave and bold and smart and also a little bit stupid. I adore them. Anything you want to write about them, I will read, probably while making insane squeaky noises of glee.
Now, the pairing. Libby's memoir is just. It’s right there, his love for Price, the way he constantly takes care of him, the way Price dresses him, the way Libby adores Price, the way Libby is all "oh god I don't want to be without Price but he needs the break SO MUCH" when Price goes to England. And, I mean, there's the tension of the battlefield, followed by the liberty in England and all the time they spent staying together. What I’m saying is: both motivation and opportunity abound.
Anyway. Please make these dudes both happy and queer. I would appreciate it so much.
And if you want to pick up this fandom, Libby's memoir, Horses Don't Fly is available in both physical book and ebook forms, and your local library may have it.
Hi!
I am going to provide you with all the details I can, because that is who I am as a person. Thank you so, so much for writing in one of these fandoms. See you on the 25th!
Likes/DNWs and General Stuff
I love so many things! Here is a small sample:
- Happy endings. (I mean of the everyone lives happily ever after kind. Although I am also a big fan of orgasms.)
- 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 marriage! 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.
- Every rating. I'm happy to get G up through NC-17, so go with whatever works best for you!
- Animal or child harm or death. These are my dealbreakers; I can't handle them at all.
- Rape.
- The abuse of women. (Fandom modification: Between Silk and Cyanide has female spies. Terrible things genuinely happened to them and no one can change that, so please just keep it off the page.)
- Infidelity. (FULLY here for any kind of arrangement that has the consent of all involved, or for unpartnered AUs.)
- Public humiliation. (Private embarrassment is fine.)
- Zombies and cannibalism.
- Character death or characters with cancer or other non-canon terminal or degenerative diseases. (Fandom modification: death is a big part of The Good Place, so the DNW for this fandom is just cancer/degenerative diseases.)
- Christmas. (I’m Jewish and around this time of year I already get enough Christmas! Other religious holidays are very welcome.)
- Mommy/Daddy/little kink.
- Unrequested pairings.
- Unhappy endings.
Notes: I have been given DELIGHTFUL fic in some of these fandoms, but I always want more! Also, the size of the sections doesn’t indicate which fandoms I want most or love best; sometimes I have a lot to say about a fandom, but sometimes my brain is just a giant heart emoji about it. I will rejoice to get any of the fandoms here.
I am entirely open to treats of any length!
Between Silk and Cyanide -- Leo Marks, Leo Marks, Forest “Tommy” Yeo-Thomas
Request: I love codebreaking, I love spies, I love extremely competent 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 be fascinated by a they-both-stay-in AU, with or without the pairing. Obviously leaving 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 also the SOE for some reason, so I have read very, very many books on these topics. Leo Marks’s memoir is my surprise favorite of all of them. His feelings, even though he was writing years after the fact, come off of every page, and he knows how to tell a story. 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 though 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 love how much he cares about winning the war and how completely he throws himself into it. I also love how he acknowledges that Leo is something special in the SOE — a person who, like Tommy, 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 and Joan Bright and Margaret Jackson.)
If you want to pick this fandom up, the book is a bit pricey, but it is available in both print and ebook forms, and it may be available from your local library as well.
Fandom-specific DNW exceptions: It’s wartime. There are female spies. I know what happened and it’s not like you can change that. Just please don’t dwell on it? Also, again, it's wartime. People died. Please just don't (permanently) kill anyone who didn't actually die.
Desk Set (1957), Peg Costello, Bunny Watson
Request: I would love for Peg to get a happy ending! That ending could be f/f, it could be OT3 Peg/Sumner/Bunny, it could be her continuing the way she is, it could be her becoming a secret advice columnist (because let’s face it, she was the Voice of Reason on that reference team). If you go for f/f, I would be delighted with Peg/Sylvia or Peg/Bunny.
Equally, I would love future fic or alternate setting fic or basically anything that continues the existing story. My favorite things about Desk Set are the excellent banter, the relationships between Bunny and Sumner and Bunny and Peg, and Bunny’s gleaming competence. If you want to write a modern version of this with the new technological threat being AI, I am also here for that!
Basically, I just want banter, happiness, and fun. Plus optional pairings.
Characters: I would like the story to focus on Peg or Bunny (or both). If you write about Peg, Bunny is optional. If you write about Bunny, Peg is optional.
Additional information: Is Desk Set the perfect movie? Almost! About as close as it was possible to get at the time! It has banter, it has humor, it has Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy with all their chemistry AND genuine respect, it has Bunny Watson. Basically the only things it’s lacking are queerness and people of color. (I cannot BELIEVE they’re out there rebooting random crap and making movies starring CGI monkeys as Robbie Williams when Desk Set is right there.)
And honestly, all I want is more of what’s already perfect about Desk Set: the humor, the banter, the caring, the kindness, the people who genuinely like and respect each other, the wit, the happy ending for all. If I get that and either Peg or Bunny, I’ll be thrilled.
Fandom-specific DNW: Please no uncanonical het.
The Good Place, Michael, Janet, Shawn, Tahani
Request: Everyone gets an ending. Except Michael. I’d love to see more of his afterlife. I assume Shawn and Tahani will design his test and I’d love to hear about that. (What does his neighborhood look like? Who does he end up with? What are his challenges and lessons? Is Shawn still as obsessed with him as he was before his Human Era?) I’d also welcome best-self-Michael’s time in the actual Good Place. (Who did they get to be in charge there after Michael left, if anyone? What’s Michael’s Good Place like and who is there with him? What does he do and how is he different with his post-human perspective?) And I’d also love an encounter with the Good Place Committee, on earth or in any place you care to name. I mean, they went SOMEWHERE. Were they embodied on earth? Did they go hide at Mindy St. Claire’s? I’d love to see Michael happening upon them.
If you want to write a pairing, Michael/Shawn is my preference; they’ve spent eternity fighting each other and being dicks to each other, and now they get to go around again! Do -- do demons have sex? Does an ex-demon human even have an interest in sex? Is an eternity spent flirting enough, or is there more that needs to happen?
And I have to assume Janet will be there just as soon as Michael shuffles off his mortal coil to reunite with her bestie. I’d love hearing about that.
Additional information: I rewatch this show regularly, but mostly I just cry through the last episode. The last time through was the first time I’ve been able to have actual thoughts about it, and my thoughts were: wait. We get EVERY ending. We know how all the major mortal beings end their eternities. We know how all the immortal beings spend their eternities (I’m including Tahani as an immortal, since by the end she clearly has somehow leveled up beyond human). But we don’t know how the once immortal, now mortal entity lives out his life and afterlife.
It was one of those thoughts I just couldn’t unthink, and now I want more. I want to know some part of what happens to Michael after he starts anew, and the few glimpses we get in canon are NOT ENOUGH.
Feel free to add canonical characters with abandon! I love all the characters in this show except Brent and Trevor. (I love Michael mostly because he does, too; he adores these weird flawed humans so much he becomes a weird flawed human.) I’d be happy to see almost anyone. Mindy St. Claire? Absolutely. (How did her eternity go, and did she end up in the same neighborhood as Michael at any point?) Beadie? I’d love to know more! The former Good Place Committee? Yes! Where the heck did they go? Did they ever come back? John? Of course. Love a man who makes a Fucket List and spends eternity banging every last dude on it! Vicky? Naturally, and I bet she’s still as pretentious as ever.
Fandom-specific DNWs: Please don’t contradict any canon endings. Please don't hook Michael up with anyone other than Shawn.
Fandom-specific DNW exception: Death is a huge part of TGP, and it would be tough to write anything I’ve requested without it, so my DNW here is just cancer/degenerative diseases. In other words, if you’re going to write about Michael’s death, maybe a heart attack or something?
Men’s Basketball RPF, Earvin Johnson, Larry Bird
Request: Look. Yes. I think Magic Johnson and Larry Bird might have soulbonded. But the thing is, it almost doesn’t matter. What we have in these two is a very classic “they could not be more different; they could not love each other more” type reality, and what I want is just -- HOW. How does that work?
I would love a story set back in the early days of the rivalry. Larry Bird, Grumpiest Teen Alive, met Magic Johnson, Dude Everyone Loves Because He Loves Everyone, and they -- somehow got along? They somehow got along SO WELL that they became the focus of each other’s basketball? Or they didn’t get along at all and it made absolutely no difference? I don’t know, but I do know I love it.
I would also love a story set in their peak basketball days, when the game was their life and their games revolved around each other, when the rivalry was driving them. I’d love to see the moment Larry Bird realized he, very reluctantly, actually cared a lot about another human being. I’d love to see Magic realizing that of all the people he cares about, he cares about Larry differently.
And I’d love a story set post-retirement as they figure out who they are when they don’t have basketball. Somehow they got to a place where they care about each other and respect each other’s differences. How?
Sex is totally not a requirement, although I would be delighted by it at any point in their timeline.
Additional information: I watched A Courtship of Rivals (YouTube link to full documentary) and just about swooned, and everything I’ve read and watched about these guys since has only increased my swooniness. These guys are so, so weird about each other, so intensely connected, so bonded in whatever way you want to take that. And I just find that fascinating. You could not have two more different people. 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!
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 post-canon. 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 ship 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.
WWI Flying Aces, Frederick Libby, Stephen Price
Request: If you are in the mood to write pairing fic, I would love some tense battlefield sex, or some seize-the-day-we're-on-liberty sex, or some the-war-is-over romance. (And if there was ever a time to take risks and go after what you want, it was while you were a pilot in WWI, or after you’d survived WWI.) If you are in a gen place, I would love some details of battlefield life, with interaction on the ground and maybe some air battles and tactics.
Whatever you choose, happy endings would be awesome, to the extent that this is possible in, you know, a WWI pilot setting. (I picked Libby and Price not just because I enjoyed Libby’s book and their relationship, but because they both lived through the war.) But of course it was a war and there were sad and terrible moments, and I am absolutely fine with you including those. Just. A happy ending for these guys, please.
Additional Information: I love the WWI pilots. They were basically making shit up as they went along. They were in these tiny planes, ones that were not entirely up to technological snuff (like, just as a single example, the Nieuport's wings tended to disintegrate during flight, which is not exactly a minor design flaw), and they were doing something no one had really ever done before. They were inventing tactics and procedures and basically the entire idea of an air war as they were doing it. They were learning on the job, creating the job, and they paid for it by dying, and dying, and dying. (I've read that at one point the average lifespan of a flier was ten hours. I'm hoping that isn't accurate, but I do think it's probably accurate that near the end of the war, when they were burning pilots for photos, the average lifespan was eleven days.) And they still managed to be fairly jaunty and cheerful and at least paste on a good stiff upper lip. They were brave and bold and smart and also a little bit stupid. I adore them. Anything you want to write about them, I will read, probably while making insane squeaky noises of glee.
Now, the pairing. Libby's memoir is just. It’s right there, his love for Price, the way he constantly takes care of him, the way Price dresses him, the way Libby adores Price, the way Libby is all "oh god I don't want to be without Price but he needs the break SO MUCH" when Price goes to England. And, I mean, there's the tension of the battlefield, followed by the liberty in England and all the time they spent staying together. What I’m saying is: both motivation and opportunity abound.
Anyway. Please make these dudes both happy and queer. I would appreciate it so much.
And if you want to pick up this fandom, Libby's memoir, Horses Don't Fly is available in both physical book and ebook forms, and your local library may have it.
no subject
no subject