Dear Yuletide Author 2018
6 Oct 2018 10:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisbluespiritDear Yuletide Writer,
Welcome & I hope you'll have fun writing for me! This letter will inevitably be long, so apologies if you prefer a short one - everything here is for help and inspiration for those (like me) who prefer that kind of thing. My few hard DNWs aside, take what's useful to you and leave what isn't.
tl;dr: I like an awful lot of things, sometimes very different things in different contexts, I love these fandoms very much, and I'll enjoy almost anything that you write for them. That said, here is the long version...
Likes: Humour, missing adventures, hurt/comfort, rescuing each other, fantasy, history, mysteries, ghosts, casefic, crossovers, banter, trope subversion, trapped together tropes, fake marriages/marriage of conveniences, forced to work together, five times, dancing, epistolary, apocalypses, spies, found families, winning through hard times to happy endings, comedy of manners, aliens made them do it, holding onto each other etc. Shipping-wise - I prefer implicit/lead-ins to explicit/graphic scenes - emotions, touch/sensation, first times, historical costumes & undressing, kissing, love conveyed by acts rather than words, balancing each other out.
DNWs: graphic violence/gore, incest, non-canonical rape, graphic porn without plot, over-eating/greed, non-canonical major character death, genderswap, age regression.
Dislikes: pregnancy, kidfic, focus on real medical condictions, issuefic, fusions.
I enjoy AUs, but see individual request prompts for the fandoms I'm more open to receiving them in, as it does vary. I am fine with gen/het/femslash/slash/poly in general (and acknowledgement of canonical relationships is fine, even when the request is focused elsewhere).
If this letter isn't already more than enough, I have a dear author tag here, where you will find previous exchange letters. (I have asked for the Dracula and Shadow of the Tower requests several times before, and you will find previous write-ups there.) I'm lost_spook pretty much everywhere.
But mostly - good luck, and don't worry. I hope the writing goes well and you have a great Yuletide. I shall be looking forward to reading whatever you come up with!
Department S
Annabelle Hurst, Stewart Sullivan, Jason King, Sir Curtis Seretse
Missing scenes, OT3ishness (platonic or shippy), casefic, banter, Mark Caine meta/humour - all would be lovely here.
Annabelle, Stewart and Jason are a great trio - all very competent and professional in completely different ways & all relying on each other and secretly caring very much, despite all the banter. I'll adore anything with them interacting, whether on a case, hanging out, or even that one actual OT3 time they don't talk about because Reasons, Annabelle sending up Jason but also coming to his rescue (& vice versa), or Stewart/Annabelle shippiness + Jason, whatever! Sir Curtis is also wonderful, and I love how much he cares about all three of his operatives (no matter how he keeps assuring them that he doesn't). So, please do include him, with bonus points if gets to join in the investigation himself in some way. If I have a favourite of the four, it's probably Annabelle, but it's the combination of all of them that's just so perfect and that's what I want more of: Department S together and doing what they do best. <3
I also completely love the added meta-humour edge and in-jokes that the in-narrative fictional Mark Caine series provides and all the references to the books we get. I think it's probably this that has helped it hold up better than a lot of other 60s film serials I've seen, because it has this tongue-in-cheek commentary on itself as well. Any references/jokes involving Mark Caine are therefore excellent, and on the opposite end of the scale, I like that it's also not afraid to go a little darker and more emotional when it needs to.
(I haven't watched Jason King, as I don't want to believe Jason, Annabelle and Stewart can be parted for long. They will just move in together and bicker affectionately forever, surely? If you have watched it, I don't mind you bringing in anything from it, as long as it's understandable to a newbie, and don't tell me about Jason not being with the other three any more.)
Prompts:
* what if one of their out-there 'Mary Celeste' type problems actually turned out to be something supernatural just once?
* a case as translated into fiction by Jason for his hero Mark Caine, with bonus points for commentary by everyone else and possibly his stern female editor(s) or compare and contrast between snippets of fiction and reality.
* case fic, with required bizarre scenario to solve. (If you can do this, you have all my admiration!)
* the noodle OT3 incident they don't talk about, but Jason has totally written up in a Mark Caine book because you know he would.
* rescues - from as part of a case to things like Annabelle getting Jason off the runway, or Sir Curtis pulling Stewart back together. They are a great team for rescues and hurt/comfort between them.
* crossovers - very optionally if you're up for it, there are other UK 60s cult shows in the tagset that could be fun- Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), The Avengers & Adam Adamant Lives! (all in production at the same time). Maybe one of their weird scenarios was Marty's fault, or they cross paths with Emma and Steed, or Georgie's a fan of Mark Caine and Adam's appalled - at least, until they all have to Fight Crime together?
Dracula (TV 1968)
Mina Harker, John Seward, Lucy Weston
I've had fic for this before, but here it is in the tag set nominated by someone other than me again, so how can I possibly resist? It is a small miracle and won't last forever, so I need tomake hay while the sun shines request fic while it's still night and an unconvincing bat on a string is flying about...
This odd little b&w TV adaptation was my first introduction to Dracula and I fell in love with it. It contains some awesome things, some cheap and cracky things, and a whole bunch of old TV actors I like, shipping each other all the ways and dealing with vampires. I am constitutionally unable to dislike such a thing. Anyway, this means I love it in both a completely unironic way and also am muchly amused by it, so if my prompts swing between these two things and seem contradictory, that is just me and you should go for whatever tone suits you. I will be very happy at your serious/creepy/bitey vampire fic and also at your cracky AU/canon thing where Dr Seward faints a lot as well as the stuff where there are ships and emotions and hurt/comfort, or any combination of those things as works for you.
I love (having now read the novel) like how much it is its own thing, and the vampire lore involved is as yet ambiguous, as it makes for lots of possibilities, which is very freeing. There is also some genuinely interesting 60s questioning of the vampires/sex thing & it is... not a very straight production, to say the least.
I like the way Lucy, Mina, and John have become connected, and all the different relationships (and possible relationships) between the three & I OT3 them quite a lot (but also like them as they are, which does already involve canon Mina/Lucy, John/Lucy and edges of Mina/John, too, given he's the one she's thinking of biting at the end, so... In separate corners of it, I tend to be more invested in Lucy/Mina and Mina/John, but I am open to all the possibilities.)
* AU where it's some other mystical happening that changes everything. (I am sure Dr Seward would be just as SHOCKED and prone to fainting if it was magic or ghosts or Villages of Evil etc.)
* pre-canon - Lucy trying to flirt with/get through to Mina; how she got John to propose; maybe an AU where they all survive and work out an OT3 way forward. (Dr Seward is very persuadable anyway. I'm sure it'll be fine.)
* post-canon - Mina has to work a way free, preferably with bonus John/Mina (bonding over the loss of Lucy) and hurt/comfort. Or she doesn't get free and does get to seduce/bite John and...? I love Mina's determination and strength & would like to see her get to use it more.
* post-canon - adventures fighting other evils/vampires, whether canon-compliant, maybe with Van Helsing, or AU, with Lucy on board, alive or as a vampire/ghost.
* if you can imagine this one as a coffee shop/in SPACE!/historical etc. etc., I do not know how that would go, but I want to. (Dr Seward should probably still faint, though. Coffee-selling is stressful. Also maybe there are still vampires. I think Denholm Drac would probably enjoy trolling the customers.)
* Lucy rises from the graveand seduces Mina again and sets her on to seduce John, whether vampire or human, events ensue. (Probably Dr Seward faints.)
(Dr Seward fainting is not actually obligatory, sorry, Dear Author. I just would be lying if I said it wasn't one of the things that entertains me the most about canon. I feel sure Van Helsing uses him mainly as a miner's canary for supernatural activity. "Ah, John has fainted/wandered off into a vampires clutches again, there must be evil afoot!" What else explains taking him into a crypt at midnight?)
While I do want all three of them, if it's post-canon, Lucy is obviously optional/only available in retrospect, and that's fine, if that's where you go. In other characters, I'm happy to see anyone else included - particularly Van Helsing. I'm still not sure what to do with this version of Jonathan (& would rather not have him getting together with anyone post canon other than Dracula, should he survive) but I've nothing against him, either (Corin Redgrave's enthusiasm for fly-eating is undeniably a highlight), as long as the focus is on my chosen characters.
The Shadow of the Tower
Henry VII of England
I love this series, for all its theatricality (or probably because of that - theatrical was not a bad word at the BBC in 1972). I like its theme of all the conspirators and Henry (he could be them, they could be him) & the ambiguity and darkness of that, and I'm also frustrated by it, because it means we get less of people like Margaret and Jasper and even Elizabeth than we otherwise might. So, I would love missing scenes, other events from his reign or a note from his account books being given a SotT treatment, or something that expands on the relationships with the regular characters.
I just want more of this version of Henry! He is such an odd mix of things, both sympathetic and chilling by turns as he disintegrates across the series & I can't think of another TV character like him. Anything you want to write will be lovely - pre-canon, missing scenes/years, post-canon, AU (whether canon or other setting).
* at least a couple of the episodes are incidents imagined from lines in Henry's account books - I think it'd be cool to do the same for a fic. (I found some more from a history book here: "a man wrongfully arrested, a woman with child, children singing for him in a garden, a Jewess for her marriage, the liberating of prisoners and for 'a little fair maiden that danceth'." Or any others you can find that inspire you! (Ep 5 is based on a record of Henry giving a gold angel to a heretic; also eps 7&8 are based on similar things.)
* I love the Henry/Elizabeth of York dynamics in this, and marriage of convenience tropes in general, and this one comes with a side order of complicated trust issues/power imbalances, and the powerless one actually being the strongest (aka AND THEN THE BBC KILLED ME WITH EPISODE 13). Hurt/comfort either way is lovely, missing events from their marriage, with bonus points for the bit that the BBC budget couldn't run to where he gave her a lion, or the war with France.
* more Henry & Margaret Beaufort would also be great. I'm v intrigued by the exchange they have in episode 6 & would love to see that played with - or anything else with them.
* related to both of those relationships, there's this apocryphal story, which always sounds so very SotT to me: Henry and Elizabeth stayed at Lathom for four days [in July 1495] as guests of Derby and Margaret Beaufort. During their visit Henry rewarded the ‘women that sang before the King and Queen’. A tale persisted in the Stanley family that the King, after being shown over the house, was taken up to the leads by Derby to see the fine view of the countryside roundabouts. The Earl’s fool had accompanied them, and seeing the King standing near the unguarded edge of the leads, he muttered to Derby, ‘Tom, remember Will.’ … Henry heard his words and, perceiving what was meant, hastened back downstairs to Elizabeth and terminated his visit immediately, leaving the fool wishing that his master had had the courage to avenge the death of his brother.
* Everything he learned, he learned from Jasper. Like making maps out of food or anything else to hand, and probably other more sensible things (that so aren't how Stanley would do things). Jasper is never in it enough, really. Pre-canon with Jasper and the exile would also be great.
* Conspirators/Henry. There's a lot of weird mirroring/obsession going on here, with Lincoln/Henry ("Henry Tudor is in my very heart!"), Perkin's fantasies about Henry, and Henry & Warwick. What would happen if any of them won, especially Perkin? I don't see him vs Henry even in victory going quite how he thinks... (but OTOH, Henry might break if he has been removed from power and therefore does not have God's support?) Submerged & messed up shippy angst welcome.
* AUs. I mean, anything, canon divergence, modern AUs, fantastic AUs, the one where it happens in a BBC cardboard spaceship instead of a castle, magic AUs (I like to think the Henry VII mentioned in the Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell footnotes is this one).
Honestly, author, I really do want all the things! So much so I don't know where to stop or start with my requests. It's a good one for interesting relationships, hurt/comfort, playing with history, arranged marriages, and angsty-mirroring of all the contenders for the crown, so please have at it. Feel free to include any characters from the series, mentioned or not, or historical figures who didn't get to turn up.
Canon DNWs: any Henry/Catherine Gordon (non-romantic interactions are welcome) or other non-Elizabeth het-ship for Henry; & please stick with canon's line on RIII & generally leave the controversy alone.
I've mentioned some things from history - please understand that I'm not an expert at all and don't need you to know anything beyond the series! Only given the obscurity of the fandom, I'm assuming the most likely thing that would bring someone to this request would be if they're into the historical period, so equally feel free to play with any rl info you have/wish to find out, as long as it's filtered through the show.
Sid Halley series - Dick Francis
Sid Halley, Charles Roland
I love Sid & Charles's relationship - it's quite unusual and great, and I glommed onto it immediately, so anything focusing on them will be wonderful. I don't know what else to say beyond that I just want more of them interacting as they are, but here are some possible prompts, as that is not all that helpful of me:
* casefic where Charles is more involved than usual/wants Sid to investigate something for Reasons.
* very random, but when I thought of this a while back: Sid winds up stranded back in time somehow and has to go to Charles for help, but obv. has to win him round all over again. (Look, I tend to think about weird scenarios, these things happen.)
* Sid needs to recuperate at Aynsford again.
I mean, really, just more of them, and I will be happy! I read the books and then I re-read their TOO FEW pages. I will add more prompts here if I think of more things before assignments go out, but if I don't, please be reassured that I just want more of those pages, and will be very grateful to get them.
DNWs: Stuff from Under Orders about Charles getting too old DOES NOT EXIST la la la. (I think there are Felix Francis books too, but I gather I should definitely not read them? I have not, in any case. I also do not know any other Dick Francis as yet.) I'm not sure I'd want other setting type AUs/fusions here, but then again I just thought up a time travel prompt, so I'll leave that in your hands.
Should you for any reason be curious about any of the above, or in need of an escape hatch, here is how to find my requested fandoms:
The 1968 Dracula is a c.80 minute feature-length (b&w) British TV adaptation of the novel. It is very much old-style cardboard TV, but it's short, contains a lot of interesting ideas and canon 60s femslash, and is currently available on YT. I gave details and links on last year's the fandom pimping post. (So far it seems to be only out on R2 & R4 DVD as part of the Mystery and Imagination anthology, not R1.)
Dick Francis's Sid Halley series is 4 crime books that should be generally easy to get hold of & not long. (If you can only get hold of one, Whip Hand is my favourite.)
The Shadow of the Tower is a 13x 50 min serial (BBC 1972). However, it's at least mostly up on YT and available on DVD in R1 & 2 (often pretty cheap & I hear US libraries sometimes have it). Details here at the fandom promo post. (I think I should also point out that it looks as if there are about 40 works under the tag, but in fact, they're all kitchen-sink tagging by White Queen/White Princess and historical RPF writers, barring about 3 works, plus my own efforts.)
Department S (1968) was an ITC film serial that ran for 28 x 50 min episodes, featuring a Interpol investigative outfit who looked into inexplicable events no one else could solve, like a plane being six days late when its captain thinks it's 30 minutes early, or an astronaut dying of lack of oxygen in the middle of London and so on. It is out on DVD and someone seems to have a bunch of episodes up at Dailymotion at the moment - Episode 1 "Six Days". Further info at last year's pimping post
Welcome & I hope you'll have fun writing for me! This letter will inevitably be long, so apologies if you prefer a short one - everything here is for help and inspiration for those (like me) who prefer that kind of thing. My few hard DNWs aside, take what's useful to you and leave what isn't.
tl;dr: I like an awful lot of things, sometimes very different things in different contexts, I love these fandoms very much, and I'll enjoy almost anything that you write for them. That said, here is the long version...
Likes: Humour, missing adventures, hurt/comfort, rescuing each other, fantasy, history, mysteries, ghosts, casefic, crossovers, banter, trope subversion, trapped together tropes, fake marriages/marriage of conveniences, forced to work together, five times, dancing, epistolary, apocalypses, spies, found families, winning through hard times to happy endings, comedy of manners, aliens made them do it, holding onto each other etc. Shipping-wise - I prefer implicit/lead-ins to explicit/graphic scenes - emotions, touch/sensation, first times, historical costumes & undressing, kissing, love conveyed by acts rather than words, balancing each other out.
DNWs: graphic violence/gore, incest, non-canonical rape, graphic porn without plot, over-eating/greed, non-canonical major character death, genderswap, age regression.
Dislikes: pregnancy, kidfic, focus on real medical condictions, issuefic, fusions.
I enjoy AUs, but see individual request prompts for the fandoms I'm more open to receiving them in, as it does vary. I am fine with gen/het/femslash/slash/poly in general (and acknowledgement of canonical relationships is fine, even when the request is focused elsewhere).
If this letter isn't already more than enough, I have a dear author tag here, where you will find previous exchange letters. (I have asked for the Dracula and Shadow of the Tower requests several times before, and you will find previous write-ups there.) I'm lost_spook pretty much everywhere.
But mostly - good luck, and don't worry. I hope the writing goes well and you have a great Yuletide. I shall be looking forward to reading whatever you come up with!
Department S
Annabelle Hurst, Stewart Sullivan, Jason King, Sir Curtis Seretse
Missing scenes, OT3ishness (platonic or shippy), casefic, banter, Mark Caine meta/humour - all would be lovely here.
Annabelle, Stewart and Jason are a great trio - all very competent and professional in completely different ways & all relying on each other and secretly caring very much, despite all the banter. I'll adore anything with them interacting, whether on a case, hanging out, or even that one actual OT3 time they don't talk about because Reasons, Annabelle sending up Jason but also coming to his rescue (& vice versa), or Stewart/Annabelle shippiness + Jason, whatever! Sir Curtis is also wonderful, and I love how much he cares about all three of his operatives (no matter how he keeps assuring them that he doesn't). So, please do include him, with bonus points if gets to join in the investigation himself in some way. If I have a favourite of the four, it's probably Annabelle, but it's the combination of all of them that's just so perfect and that's what I want more of: Department S together and doing what they do best. <3
I also completely love the added meta-humour edge and in-jokes that the in-narrative fictional Mark Caine series provides and all the references to the books we get. I think it's probably this that has helped it hold up better than a lot of other 60s film serials I've seen, because it has this tongue-in-cheek commentary on itself as well. Any references/jokes involving Mark Caine are therefore excellent, and on the opposite end of the scale, I like that it's also not afraid to go a little darker and more emotional when it needs to.
(I haven't watched Jason King, as I don't want to believe Jason, Annabelle and Stewart can be parted for long. They will just move in together and bicker affectionately forever, surely? If you have watched it, I don't mind you bringing in anything from it, as long as it's understandable to a newbie, and don't tell me about Jason not being with the other three any more.)
Prompts:
* what if one of their out-there 'Mary Celeste' type problems actually turned out to be something supernatural just once?
* a case as translated into fiction by Jason for his hero Mark Caine, with bonus points for commentary by everyone else and possibly his stern female editor(s) or compare and contrast between snippets of fiction and reality.
* case fic, with required bizarre scenario to solve. (If you can do this, you have all my admiration!)
* the noodle OT3 incident they don't talk about, but Jason has totally written up in a Mark Caine book because you know he would.
* rescues - from as part of a case to things like Annabelle getting Jason off the runway, or Sir Curtis pulling Stewart back together. They are a great team for rescues and hurt/comfort between them.
* crossovers - very optionally if you're up for it, there are other UK 60s cult shows in the tagset that could be fun- Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), The Avengers & Adam Adamant Lives! (all in production at the same time). Maybe one of their weird scenarios was Marty's fault, or they cross paths with Emma and Steed, or Georgie's a fan of Mark Caine and Adam's appalled - at least, until they all have to Fight Crime together?
Dracula (TV 1968)
Mina Harker, John Seward, Lucy Weston
I've had fic for this before, but here it is in the tag set nominated by someone other than me again, so how can I possibly resist? It is a small miracle and won't last forever, so I need to
This odd little b&w TV adaptation was my first introduction to Dracula and I fell in love with it. It contains some awesome things, some cheap and cracky things, and a whole bunch of old TV actors I like, shipping each other all the ways and dealing with vampires. I am constitutionally unable to dislike such a thing. Anyway, this means I love it in both a completely unironic way and also am muchly amused by it, so if my prompts swing between these two things and seem contradictory, that is just me and you should go for whatever tone suits you. I will be very happy at your serious/creepy/bitey vampire fic and also at your cracky AU/canon thing where Dr Seward faints a lot as well as the stuff where there are ships and emotions and hurt/comfort, or any combination of those things as works for you.
I love (having now read the novel) like how much it is its own thing, and the vampire lore involved is as yet ambiguous, as it makes for lots of possibilities, which is very freeing. There is also some genuinely interesting 60s questioning of the vampires/sex thing & it is... not a very straight production, to say the least.
I like the way Lucy, Mina, and John have become connected, and all the different relationships (and possible relationships) between the three & I OT3 them quite a lot (but also like them as they are, which does already involve canon Mina/Lucy, John/Lucy and edges of Mina/John, too, given he's the one she's thinking of biting at the end, so... In separate corners of it, I tend to be more invested in Lucy/Mina and Mina/John, but I am open to all the possibilities.)
* AU where it's some other mystical happening that changes everything. (I am sure Dr Seward would be just as SHOCKED and prone to fainting if it was magic or ghosts or Villages of Evil etc.)
* pre-canon - Lucy trying to flirt with/get through to Mina; how she got John to propose; maybe an AU where they all survive and work out an OT3 way forward. (Dr Seward is very persuadable anyway. I'm sure it'll be fine.)
* post-canon - Mina has to work a way free, preferably with bonus John/Mina (bonding over the loss of Lucy) and hurt/comfort. Or she doesn't get free and does get to seduce/bite John and...? I love Mina's determination and strength & would like to see her get to use it more.
* post-canon - adventures fighting other evils/vampires, whether canon-compliant, maybe with Van Helsing, or AU, with Lucy on board, alive or as a vampire/ghost.
* if you can imagine this one as a coffee shop/in SPACE!/historical etc. etc., I do not know how that would go, but I want to. (Dr Seward should probably still faint, though. Coffee-selling is stressful. Also maybe there are still vampires. I think Denholm Drac would probably enjoy trolling the customers.)
* Lucy rises from the grave
(Dr Seward fainting is not actually obligatory, sorry, Dear Author. I just would be lying if I said it wasn't one of the things that entertains me the most about canon. I feel sure Van Helsing uses him mainly as a miner's canary for supernatural activity. "Ah, John has fainted/wandered off into a vampires clutches again, there must be evil afoot!" What else explains taking him into a crypt at midnight?)
While I do want all three of them, if it's post-canon, Lucy is obviously optional/only available in retrospect, and that's fine, if that's where you go. In other characters, I'm happy to see anyone else included - particularly Van Helsing. I'm still not sure what to do with this version of Jonathan (& would rather not have him getting together with anyone post canon other than Dracula, should he survive) but I've nothing against him, either (Corin Redgrave's enthusiasm for fly-eating is undeniably a highlight), as long as the focus is on my chosen characters.
The Shadow of the Tower
Henry VII of England
I love this series, for all its theatricality (or probably because of that - theatrical was not a bad word at the BBC in 1972). I like its theme of all the conspirators and Henry (he could be them, they could be him) & the ambiguity and darkness of that, and I'm also frustrated by it, because it means we get less of people like Margaret and Jasper and even Elizabeth than we otherwise might. So, I would love missing scenes, other events from his reign or a note from his account books being given a SotT treatment, or something that expands on the relationships with the regular characters.
I just want more of this version of Henry! He is such an odd mix of things, both sympathetic and chilling by turns as he disintegrates across the series & I can't think of another TV character like him. Anything you want to write will be lovely - pre-canon, missing scenes/years, post-canon, AU (whether canon or other setting).
* at least a couple of the episodes are incidents imagined from lines in Henry's account books - I think it'd be cool to do the same for a fic. (I found some more from a history book here: "a man wrongfully arrested, a woman with child, children singing for him in a garden, a Jewess for her marriage, the liberating of prisoners and for 'a little fair maiden that danceth'." Or any others you can find that inspire you! (Ep 5 is based on a record of Henry giving a gold angel to a heretic; also eps 7&8 are based on similar things.)
* I love the Henry/Elizabeth of York dynamics in this, and marriage of convenience tropes in general, and this one comes with a side order of complicated trust issues/power imbalances, and the powerless one actually being the strongest (aka AND THEN THE BBC KILLED ME WITH EPISODE 13). Hurt/comfort either way is lovely, missing events from their marriage, with bonus points for the bit that the BBC budget couldn't run to where he gave her a lion, or the war with France.
* more Henry & Margaret Beaufort would also be great. I'm v intrigued by the exchange they have in episode 6 & would love to see that played with - or anything else with them.
* related to both of those relationships, there's this apocryphal story, which always sounds so very SotT to me: Henry and Elizabeth stayed at Lathom for four days [in July 1495] as guests of Derby and Margaret Beaufort. During their visit Henry rewarded the ‘women that sang before the King and Queen’. A tale persisted in the Stanley family that the King, after being shown over the house, was taken up to the leads by Derby to see the fine view of the countryside roundabouts. The Earl’s fool had accompanied them, and seeing the King standing near the unguarded edge of the leads, he muttered to Derby, ‘Tom, remember Will.’ … Henry heard his words and, perceiving what was meant, hastened back downstairs to Elizabeth and terminated his visit immediately, leaving the fool wishing that his master had had the courage to avenge the death of his brother.
* Everything he learned, he learned from Jasper. Like making maps out of food or anything else to hand, and probably other more sensible things (that so aren't how Stanley would do things). Jasper is never in it enough, really. Pre-canon with Jasper and the exile would also be great.
* Conspirators/Henry. There's a lot of weird mirroring/obsession going on here, with Lincoln/Henry ("Henry Tudor is in my very heart!"), Perkin's fantasies about Henry, and Henry & Warwick. What would happen if any of them won, especially Perkin? I don't see him vs Henry even in victory going quite how he thinks... (but OTOH, Henry might break if he has been removed from power and therefore does not have God's support?) Submerged & messed up shippy angst welcome.
* AUs. I mean, anything, canon divergence, modern AUs, fantastic AUs, the one where it happens in a BBC cardboard spaceship instead of a castle, magic AUs (I like to think the Henry VII mentioned in the Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell footnotes is this one).
Honestly, author, I really do want all the things! So much so I don't know where to stop or start with my requests. It's a good one for interesting relationships, hurt/comfort, playing with history, arranged marriages, and angsty-mirroring of all the contenders for the crown, so please have at it. Feel free to include any characters from the series, mentioned or not, or historical figures who didn't get to turn up.
Canon DNWs: any Henry/Catherine Gordon (non-romantic interactions are welcome) or other non-Elizabeth het-ship for Henry; & please stick with canon's line on RIII & generally leave the controversy alone.
I've mentioned some things from history - please understand that I'm not an expert at all and don't need you to know anything beyond the series! Only given the obscurity of the fandom, I'm assuming the most likely thing that would bring someone to this request would be if they're into the historical period, so equally feel free to play with any rl info you have/wish to find out, as long as it's filtered through the show.
Sid Halley series - Dick Francis
Sid Halley, Charles Roland
I love Sid & Charles's relationship - it's quite unusual and great, and I glommed onto it immediately, so anything focusing on them will be wonderful. I don't know what else to say beyond that I just want more of them interacting as they are, but here are some possible prompts, as that is not all that helpful of me:
* casefic where Charles is more involved than usual/wants Sid to investigate something for Reasons.
* very random, but when I thought of this a while back: Sid winds up stranded back in time somehow and has to go to Charles for help, but obv. has to win him round all over again. (Look, I tend to think about weird scenarios, these things happen.)
* Sid needs to recuperate at Aynsford again.
I mean, really, just more of them, and I will be happy! I read the books and then I re-read their TOO FEW pages. I will add more prompts here if I think of more things before assignments go out, but if I don't, please be reassured that I just want more of those pages, and will be very grateful to get them.
DNWs: Stuff from Under Orders about Charles getting too old DOES NOT EXIST la la la. (I think there are Felix Francis books too, but I gather I should definitely not read them? I have not, in any case. I also do not know any other Dick Francis as yet.) I'm not sure I'd want other setting type AUs/fusions here, but then again I just thought up a time travel prompt, so I'll leave that in your hands.
Should you for any reason be curious about any of the above, or in need of an escape hatch, here is how to find my requested fandoms:
The 1968 Dracula is a c.80 minute feature-length (b&w) British TV adaptation of the novel. It is very much old-style cardboard TV, but it's short, contains a lot of interesting ideas and canon 60s femslash, and is currently available on YT. I gave details and links on last year's the fandom pimping post. (So far it seems to be only out on R2 & R4 DVD as part of the Mystery and Imagination anthology, not R1.)
Dick Francis's Sid Halley series is 4 crime books that should be generally easy to get hold of & not long. (If you can only get hold of one, Whip Hand is my favourite.)
The Shadow of the Tower is a 13x 50 min serial (BBC 1972). However, it's at least mostly up on YT and available on DVD in R1 & 2 (often pretty cheap & I hear US libraries sometimes have it). Details here at the fandom promo post. (I think I should also point out that it looks as if there are about 40 works under the tag, but in fact, they're all kitchen-sink tagging by White Queen/White Princess and historical RPF writers, barring about 3 works, plus my own efforts.)
Department S (1968) was an ITC film serial that ran for 28 x 50 min episodes, featuring a Interpol investigative outfit who looked into inexplicable events no one else could solve, like a plane being six days late when its captain thinks it's 30 minutes early, or an astronaut dying of lack of oxygen in the middle of London and so on. It is out on DVD and someone seems to have a bunch of episodes up at Dailymotion at the moment - Episode 1 "Six Days". Further info at last year's pimping post