Dear Yuletide Letter 2019
31 Oct 2019 08:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisbluespiritThank you for writing something for me! This letter is bound to be long, but tl;dr: I love all kinds of things, I love the fandoms and character combinations I've chosen, and as long as you don't write my few hard DNWs, I'm bound to love whatever you come up with.
Prompts are intended purely for inspiration, not to restrict your choices. Take what's useful here and leave what isn't, and I hope you have fun.
That said, here is the long version...
General preferences:-
Likes: Humour, missing adventures/scenes, hurt/comfort, rescuing each other, fantasy, history, mysteries, ghosts, casefic, time loops, crossovers, banter, tropes, trope subversion, sensible people dealing with ridiculous tropes, trapped together, fake marriages/marriage of conveniences, forced to work together, (five) times, epistolary, apocalypses, spies, found families, winning through hard times to happy endings, comedy of manners, aliens made them do it, not letting go, crack, other setting AUs. I prefer implied sex or lead-ins/sensuality over explicit/graphic scenes - also emotions, touch/sensation, first times, historical costumes & undressing, kissing, love conveyed by acts not words, balancing each other out.
DNWs/dislikes: incest, non-canonical rape, porn without plot, over-eating/greed, non-canonical major character death, character bashing, genderswap, age regression, pregnancy, kidfic, issuefic, mundane AUs for fantastical canons, fusions, body horror/unexpected physical transformations (except vampires), a/b/o.
I enjoy AUs, but see individual prompts for fandoms, as I'm more open to them in some fandoms than others. (In general, if you make my fantastical canon mundane, I may be sad, but if you add fantastical elements to mundane canons and force sensible people to cope with the impossible, I am likely to be delighted - but as I said, see specific fandom details.) I am fine with gen/het/femslash/slash/poly in general (and acknowledgement of any canonical relationships is fine, even when the request is focused elsewhere).
I'm![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
thisbluespirit at AO3 and pretty much everywhere else I hang out. I have a dear author tag for fest letters in general.
If I've requested something here, then I definitely want it & length of section is no indication of anything, other than my failure to be concise. If any of these requests/prompts have been filled and I'm asking again, well, I'm just greedy for more!
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, though, as I don't want to believe Jason, Annabelle and Stewart don't just hang around each other forever. I don't mind mentions of anything else from it, though, if you do - as long as they're intelligible to a newbie.)
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 - It feels like a natural for potential crossovers, including other 1960s cult fandoms, e.g. The Avengers, Randall & Hopkirk, or Adam Adamant Lives! (especially any in the tagset) but anything else you can see from my Dreamwidth/AO3 that I know could be a lot of fun.
Doctor Who (Big Finish Audios)
Bernice Summerfield, Charley Pollard, Evelyn Smythe, Lucie Miller
This is definitely an or request - please don't feel obliged to have all four in the same place at the same time unless you want to. (If you do want to, I adore multi-era meet-ups, and 'x-times' fic in which multiple TARDIS teams face the same scenario etc. so have at it!) I am happy to have any of these with their regular Doctors & teams or in any combinations of the above characters.
Benny - I have loved Benny from the original NA days and am glad Big Finish have been making use of her in that context now, making it possible for me to request her here! (I've listened to Shadow of the Scourage, Company of Friends and The Highest Science so far, but don't worry, I know all the NAs the newer ones are based on.) I haven't yet been able to listen to any of Benny's own series. I'm good with you including elements of that, as long as they're explicable to a newbie.)
* solo adventures, pre and post TARDIS (although with the Benny series caveat, sorry!), especially archaeological shenanigans of any kind
* diary entries
* team TARDIS adventures/ domesticity with Seven or Eight (or any other Doctor you want - most have had BF appearances and are fair game), with or without Ace as you wish.
Charley - I love Charley! Her initial run with Eight was what got me into audio dramas in the first place. I've listened to the first volume of her solo adventures (but am not up to date if there has been any more after that) & all of her run right up to Blue Forgotten Planet, although with some gaps I'm working on filling in the period with C'rizz (I've got nothing against C'rizz, but I love Charley & the Doctor far more). I am as happy to have her with Six as with Eight. I ship Eight/Charley hard, but equally adore their canon dynamic, and both ship and friendship her and Six, too. Anything pre, during, or post canon is good.
* reunion meeting between her and the Doctor, especially if it's still Eight.
* Charley meet any other companion or Doctor as you wish.
* Charley & Eight (or Six) & surreal adventures
Lucie - I finally got myself up to date with Lucie's whole arc at the beginning of the year and now I just want more of her. She and Eight are great together, so again, feel free to include him. I don't ship Eight/Lucie in canon as such, but I like it in fic, so go which way the muse moves you. Fixits are not required, but would be enjoyed! Or turn up the angst if that's the way you like it. Just give me some more Lucie and I'm good. There is some marvellous Lucie fic out there, but so little of it! Your addition will be a public service.
* Lucie & Eight banter as ever
* Lucie in multi-era adventures (I don't recall seeing much like this)
* Lucie is not [spoiler] because [insert preferably improbable Doctor Who-ish reason here]!
Evelyn - and the second range that really got me on board with the audios was Evelyn and Six. Evelyn is just great and I love her, particularly with Six. I am very nearly up to date with Evelyn but not quite at the end (I'm working on it, though!) but I know the main spoilery thing regarding her, so feel free to include that or not. I love her with Six and you can write any missing scene or adventure with them and I'll be happy.
* Six and Evelyn adventuring/talking/having chocolate cake/anything.
* Evelyn meeting other companions, especially Mel (I liked their interactions) but anyone is good!
In terms of combinations - I'm not sure I've ever seen any of these four meet, so that could be really great - Benny & Evelyn have much in common, both in their day jobs and in keeping their Doctors accountable for their actions, so that could be a very interesting team-up at whatever point in their respective timelines it happened. Benny & Charley share a tendency to attract shenanigans and keep diaries, even if they're very different in other ways. Benny & Lucie would be the snarkiest fix either of them ever got themselves into (and could definitely wind up in drunken shippage); Charley & Evelyn - maybe Evelyn's the one person who'd understand some of Charley's problems during or post canon (and vice versa)? Charley & Lucie - Eight has got himself in some sort of timey-wimey fix he needs help out of? Lucie & Evelyn - they'd take a moment to get used to each other, but would be a formidable team once they did.
In short, I love these four characters, so have fun doing whatever you like with them in any combination as suits you.
Plus, of course, Doctor Who as ever is the ultimate in crossover-able fandoms, so if we share any other fandoms in or out of Yuletide, and you have ideas, go for it.
Dracula (TV 1968)
Mina Harker, John Seward, Lucy Weston
I've had fic for this before, but how can I possibly resist asking for it again? It is a small miracle that any fic exists for such an old TV production and I still want more!
This 1960s b&w TV adaptation was my introduction to Dracula and I fell in love with it. It contains some genuinely interesting and great 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. I am both amused by it and straight up love it for many reasons, so I will be very happy at your serious/creepy vampire fic and also at your cracky AU/canon thing where Dr Seward faints a lot as well as ships and emotions and hurt/comfort, or any combination of any of those things.
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 for writing purposes. There is also some genuinely interesting 1960s 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 already includes canon Mina/Lucy, John/Lucy and Mina/John, too, given he's the one she's thinking of biting at the end.)
* 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. 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. Or any other aspect of John/Mina dealing with the fallout and getting together.
* 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 feel free to show me. (Dr Seward should probably still faint, though. Coffee-selling is stressful. Also maybe there are still vampires. I think Denholm Drac would enjoy trolling the customers.)
* I didn't request Jonathan, but John/Mina/Jonathan came up in a meme once and I found it rather a plausible and fun post-canon option and would happily see more of them as a trio having more supernatural adventures & coping with life post-Dracula.
* 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 am just muchly amused by it. I feel sure Van Helsing uses him mainly as a miner's canary. "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, from the tagset or the show itself (I am particularly fond of the two housekeepers, clearly a sign I have rewatched this far too often), so feel free to include any other characters as you feel led.
Duchess of Duke Street
Louisa Trotter
I nearly fainted away when I discovered someone else was nomming this and decided that I had to take advantage and request it myself.
Duchess of Duke Street is a 1970s BBC historical drama, loosely based on the real story of a London hotelier and encompasses about twenty years or so in the life of Louisa Trotter, a kitchen maid who winds up running an exclusive hotel. I've requested Louisa because basically Gemma Jones is amazing throughout. So, I am absolutely here for more of her & all her contradictions and being a (frequently problematic) force of nature. She is, most definitely, All The Things.
I enjoy her canon romance with Charlie, although I am probably even more interested in her dynamics with all the hotel regulars if you're interested in bringing them in - Mary, the grumpy Merriman, and Richard Vernon's retired Major who's low-key devoted to her in particular. (The bit where Merriman unexpectedly saved her life might even be my favourite thing.) Canon also contains a lot of angst as well as fun - Louisa has a difficult family background and two relationships forced on her at a young age on top of various canon events and the difficulties of her relationship with Charlie. I am as happy to see that aspect of her explored as the more successful side.
* guest of the week shanigans of whatever kind (one time they were, in fictionalised versions, effectively shipping Lloyd George/Beatrix Potter and one half of that equation was Robert Hardy, so what the hell, dear author, go for it. The Edwardian world is your oyster.)
* I love the moments that pull out Louisa's vulnerabilities and allow her to question some of her faults (the progress of WWI, the young suffragette, it often comes up with Mary).
* if you manage to pull off Mary/Louisa somewhere in there, I would be delighted. (I've tried and got nowhere and it is a thing that ought to exist. See Louisa's complete outrage when her Mary is going to get MARRIED TO SOMEONE ELSE.) Or just hurt/comfort when things get bad - as they do all to often - with their friendship being the one constant.
* Crossover with Downton Abbey - maybe the Dowager or someone takes tea/stays at the hotel? (I wouldn't normally bring up non-Yuletide fandoms, but honestly, Julian Fellowes is in it himself as an actor in S2 and blatantly stole whole plots from it! Bates's backstory? Mrs Patmore's cooking tips? The Sybil/Branson romance? Checkout DofDS for the original!)
* any other likely crossover with another character coming to stay and probably bringing trouble in their wake.
* one of the rooms is haunted! (For real or otherwise as you please. Cf. above me being delighted about fantastical elements happening in mundane canons and making sensible people have to deal with preposterous things. I am pretty sure that Louisa would be equal to anything.)
Sapphire and Steel
Silver
I love Silver, as will become obvious if you poke about anywhere on my AO3 account or here on Dreamwidth, so pretty much anything you can write me will be adored.
I love Elements (or whatever you prefer to call them) - I love the mysterious nature of them, how they attract and repel and interact, and their strange abilities and distinct characters. I do very much love Sapphire and Steel themselves, of course. I just love Silver that little bit more! Feel free to use any established Elements, either from the show or the audios, those mentioned in cnaon (Mercury, Copper, Jet) or come up with your own, as well as obviously Sapphire and Steel.
I ship Silver, at least in passing, with everyone and everything from other Elements to flirting with humans to get the job done to any reasonably shiny AI probably up to and including a smart kettle, but also Sapphire/Silver/Steel is beautiful inhuman OT3 of my heart. I love the weird ways in which they are intimate yet see each other as mysteries, and how effective they are together, which seems to be maybe the elemental ideal and ship all corners of the OT3. Also I love the way Silver annoys Steel and Silver's nervous of Steel, but they're still fascinated with each other, as well as their individual and combined interactions with Sapphire. But, as I said, I will ship Silver with pretty much anyone or anything for the space of a fic (and I sometimes think that in some ways all Elements/Elements may plausibly be canon anyway).
* assignment & interaction with other Elements. And what has Silver been doing to annoy Copper? (I love Elemental gossip.) Elements/elements in their own weird way; things touching on their nature. (I love original elements in S&S fic, so feel free to speculate.)
* unseen Assignments with Sapphire and Steel - pre-canon assignments with Sapphire, since they seem to go way back. (Or perhaps, separately he also annoyed Steel in previous centuries?) Or post-canon (I'm sure they got out) - anything's possible! Are the Transients annoyed?
* historical assignments generally
* crossovers - like DW, it's a very go-anywhere fandom, so anything from my other fandoms, or fandoms we share that you wanted to explore from a S&S POV (or S&S's characters' weirdness from another fandom's POV).
* OT3 - other-than-sex intimacy, missing scenes, hurt/comfort, rescues from weird peril, Silver annoying Steel
* time loops
But one of the pleasures of the fandom is how everyone interprets its weirdness differently, so please just have fun doing S&S however feels right to you, and give me some more Silver along the way, and I'll be happy.
Fandom DNW: Evil/traitor Silver (& related please no specific stated exclusion of Silver/Sapphire/Steel); AUs where they're human.
The Shadow of the Tower
Henry VII of England
I love this series, for all its theatricality (or because of it - theatrical was not a bad word at the BBC in 1972). I like the theme of 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, events from his reign that were skipped over by the series, 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. 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 notes in the accounts.)
* 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.
I've mentioned some things from history - please understand that I'm not an expert and don't need you to know anything beyond the series. Just equally feel free to play with any historical stuff filtered through the tone of the show as you wish.
Canon DNWs: any Henry/Catherine Gordon (non-romantic interactions are welcome) or other non-Elizabeth het-ship for Henry; Elizabeth/Richard III.
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, in order of length:
Dracula (TV 1968) 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.)
Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio) - you probably know what DW is! However, while there are 100s of tie-in audios by Big Finish, to write a missing scene you wouldn't have to listen to many and the first 100 are all downloadable direct from the Big Finish site at knock-down prices, so if you wanted to try and pick up some Charley (Storm Warning is the first) & Evelyn (starts from The Marian Conspiracy) it'd be pretty easy. (And they're good!) You can sometimes pick up second hand CDs on eBay and things, too. The run with Lucie sometimes gets played on BBC radio, so if you're in the UK you can check them, but isn't part of the bargain 100 audios. (Benny is more complicated, but if you want to try The Shadow of the Scourge should be included.)
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.
The Duchess of Duke Street was a 26 episode historical drama (BBC 1976-7, 2 series of 13 x 50 mins) focusing on the rise of a scullery maid to hotel manager, based on the real story of Rosa Lewis, dubbed the Duchess of Jermyn Street. The UK channel Drama ran it a few years ago and did quite a good write up here. The DVDs have been out in various regions & can be picked up quite cheap (& I can find someone with it up on YT here). Fair warning - the first few episodes are very slow, but it gets much better after that &, as I said, Gemma Jones is truly amazing.
Sapphire & Steel was an SFF show (ITV 1979-81) consisting of 6 'Assignments' (made up of 4-8 25 min episodes each (think Classic Who serials), starring Joanna Lumley and David McCallum in the title roles. It's original, spooky and turns low-budget TV into an art form and will scare you with nursery rhymes, photographs, flowers, railway stations, clocks and motorway service stations. Plus there's an evil pillow. The lead characters are non-human mysterious 'elements' (or whatever you choose to call them) who each have particular powers, which they use to fight Time, which is always trying to break into reality and destroy things. Sapphire and Steel are our only regulars but they are helped out on occasions by 'specialists' or 'technicians' It's weird, original and if you've a love of SFF and any patience with this era's TV, I can't recommend it enough. It's out on DVD in both R1 & 2 and several people have it up on YouTube. You do need to watch most of it, if not all to get into it, because a lot of fannish stuff revolves around spoilery things from Assignment 6.
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
Prompts are intended purely for inspiration, not to restrict your choices. Take what's useful here and leave what isn't, and I hope you have fun.
That said, here is the long version...
General preferences:-
Likes: Humour, missing adventures/scenes, hurt/comfort, rescuing each other, fantasy, history, mysteries, ghosts, casefic, time loops, crossovers, banter, tropes, trope subversion, sensible people dealing with ridiculous tropes, trapped together, fake marriages/marriage of conveniences, forced to work together, (five) times, epistolary, apocalypses, spies, found families, winning through hard times to happy endings, comedy of manners, aliens made them do it, not letting go, crack, other setting AUs. I prefer implied sex or lead-ins/sensuality over explicit/graphic scenes - also emotions, touch/sensation, first times, historical costumes & undressing, kissing, love conveyed by acts not words, balancing each other out.
DNWs/dislikes: incest, non-canonical rape, porn without plot, over-eating/greed, non-canonical major character death, character bashing, genderswap, age regression, pregnancy, kidfic, issuefic, mundane AUs for fantastical canons, fusions, body horror/unexpected physical transformations (except vampires), a/b/o.
I enjoy AUs, but see individual prompts for fandoms, as I'm more open to them in some fandoms than others. (In general, if you make my fantastical canon mundane, I may be sad, but if you add fantastical elements to mundane canons and force sensible people to cope with the impossible, I am likely to be delighted - but as I said, see specific fandom details.) I am fine with gen/het/femslash/slash/poly in general (and acknowledgement of any canonical relationships is fine, even when the request is focused elsewhere).
I'm
If I've requested something here, then I definitely want it & length of section is no indication of anything, other than my failure to be concise. If any of these requests/prompts have been filled and I'm asking again, well, I'm just greedy for more!
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, though, as I don't want to believe Jason, Annabelle and Stewart don't just hang around each other forever. I don't mind mentions of anything else from it, though, if you do - as long as they're intelligible to a newbie.)
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 - It feels like a natural for potential crossovers, including other 1960s cult fandoms, e.g. The Avengers, Randall & Hopkirk, or Adam Adamant Lives! (especially any in the tagset) but anything else you can see from my Dreamwidth/AO3 that I know could be a lot of fun.
Doctor Who (Big Finish Audios)
Bernice Summerfield, Charley Pollard, Evelyn Smythe, Lucie Miller
This is definitely an or request - please don't feel obliged to have all four in the same place at the same time unless you want to. (If you do want to, I adore multi-era meet-ups, and 'x-times' fic in which multiple TARDIS teams face the same scenario etc. so have at it!) I am happy to have any of these with their regular Doctors & teams or in any combinations of the above characters.
Benny - I have loved Benny from the original NA days and am glad Big Finish have been making use of her in that context now, making it possible for me to request her here! (I've listened to Shadow of the Scourage, Company of Friends and The Highest Science so far, but don't worry, I know all the NAs the newer ones are based on.) I haven't yet been able to listen to any of Benny's own series. I'm good with you including elements of that, as long as they're explicable to a newbie.)
* solo adventures, pre and post TARDIS (although with the Benny series caveat, sorry!), especially archaeological shenanigans of any kind
* diary entries
* team TARDIS adventures/ domesticity with Seven or Eight (or any other Doctor you want - most have had BF appearances and are fair game), with or without Ace as you wish.
Charley - I love Charley! Her initial run with Eight was what got me into audio dramas in the first place. I've listened to the first volume of her solo adventures (but am not up to date if there has been any more after that) & all of her run right up to Blue Forgotten Planet, although with some gaps I'm working on filling in the period with C'rizz (I've got nothing against C'rizz, but I love Charley & the Doctor far more). I am as happy to have her with Six as with Eight. I ship Eight/Charley hard, but equally adore their canon dynamic, and both ship and friendship her and Six, too. Anything pre, during, or post canon is good.
* reunion meeting between her and the Doctor, especially if it's still Eight.
* Charley meet any other companion or Doctor as you wish.
* Charley & Eight (or Six) & surreal adventures
Lucie - I finally got myself up to date with Lucie's whole arc at the beginning of the year and now I just want more of her. She and Eight are great together, so again, feel free to include him. I don't ship Eight/Lucie in canon as such, but I like it in fic, so go which way the muse moves you. Fixits are not required, but would be enjoyed! Or turn up the angst if that's the way you like it. Just give me some more Lucie and I'm good. There is some marvellous Lucie fic out there, but so little of it! Your addition will be a public service.
* Lucie & Eight banter as ever
* Lucie in multi-era adventures (I don't recall seeing much like this)
* Lucie is not [spoiler] because [insert preferably improbable Doctor Who-ish reason here]!
Evelyn - and the second range that really got me on board with the audios was Evelyn and Six. Evelyn is just great and I love her, particularly with Six. I am very nearly up to date with Evelyn but not quite at the end (I'm working on it, though!) but I know the main spoilery thing regarding her, so feel free to include that or not. I love her with Six and you can write any missing scene or adventure with them and I'll be happy.
* Six and Evelyn adventuring/talking/having chocolate cake/anything.
* Evelyn meeting other companions, especially Mel (I liked their interactions) but anyone is good!
In terms of combinations - I'm not sure I've ever seen any of these four meet, so that could be really great - Benny & Evelyn have much in common, both in their day jobs and in keeping their Doctors accountable for their actions, so that could be a very interesting team-up at whatever point in their respective timelines it happened. Benny & Charley share a tendency to attract shenanigans and keep diaries, even if they're very different in other ways. Benny & Lucie would be the snarkiest fix either of them ever got themselves into (and could definitely wind up in drunken shippage); Charley & Evelyn - maybe Evelyn's the one person who'd understand some of Charley's problems during or post canon (and vice versa)? Charley & Lucie - Eight has got himself in some sort of timey-wimey fix he needs help out of? Lucie & Evelyn - they'd take a moment to get used to each other, but would be a formidable team once they did.
In short, I love these four characters, so have fun doing whatever you like with them in any combination as suits you.
Plus, of course, Doctor Who as ever is the ultimate in crossover-able fandoms, so if we share any other fandoms in or out of Yuletide, and you have ideas, go for it.
Dracula (TV 1968)
Mina Harker, John Seward, Lucy Weston
I've had fic for this before, but how can I possibly resist asking for it again? It is a small miracle that any fic exists for such an old TV production and I still want more!
This 1960s b&w TV adaptation was my introduction to Dracula and I fell in love with it. It contains some genuinely interesting and great 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. I am both amused by it and straight up love it for many reasons, so I will be very happy at your serious/creepy vampire fic and also at your cracky AU/canon thing where Dr Seward faints a lot as well as ships and emotions and hurt/comfort, or any combination of any of those things.
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 for writing purposes. There is also some genuinely interesting 1960s 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 already includes canon Mina/Lucy, John/Lucy and Mina/John, too, given he's the one she's thinking of biting at the end.)
* 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. 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. Or any other aspect of John/Mina dealing with the fallout and getting together.
* 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 feel free to show me. (Dr Seward should probably still faint, though. Coffee-selling is stressful. Also maybe there are still vampires. I think Denholm Drac would enjoy trolling the customers.)
* I didn't request Jonathan, but John/Mina/Jonathan came up in a meme once and I found it rather a plausible and fun post-canon option and would happily see more of them as a trio having more supernatural adventures & coping with life post-Dracula.
* Lucy rises from the grave
(Dr Seward fainting is not actually obligatory, sorry, Dear Author. I am just muchly amused by it. I feel sure Van Helsing uses him mainly as a miner's canary. "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, from the tagset or the show itself (I am particularly fond of the two housekeepers, clearly a sign I have rewatched this far too often), so feel free to include any other characters as you feel led.
Duchess of Duke Street
Louisa Trotter
I nearly fainted away when I discovered someone else was nomming this and decided that I had to take advantage and request it myself.
Duchess of Duke Street is a 1970s BBC historical drama, loosely based on the real story of a London hotelier and encompasses about twenty years or so in the life of Louisa Trotter, a kitchen maid who winds up running an exclusive hotel. I've requested Louisa because basically Gemma Jones is amazing throughout. So, I am absolutely here for more of her & all her contradictions and being a (frequently problematic) force of nature. She is, most definitely, All The Things.
I enjoy her canon romance with Charlie, although I am probably even more interested in her dynamics with all the hotel regulars if you're interested in bringing them in - Mary, the grumpy Merriman, and Richard Vernon's retired Major who's low-key devoted to her in particular. (The bit where Merriman unexpectedly saved her life might even be my favourite thing.) Canon also contains a lot of angst as well as fun - Louisa has a difficult family background and two relationships forced on her at a young age on top of various canon events and the difficulties of her relationship with Charlie. I am as happy to see that aspect of her explored as the more successful side.
* guest of the week shanigans of whatever kind (one time they were, in fictionalised versions, effectively shipping Lloyd George/Beatrix Potter and one half of that equation was Robert Hardy, so what the hell, dear author, go for it. The Edwardian world is your oyster.)
* I love the moments that pull out Louisa's vulnerabilities and allow her to question some of her faults (the progress of WWI, the young suffragette, it often comes up with Mary).
* if you manage to pull off Mary/Louisa somewhere in there, I would be delighted. (I've tried and got nowhere and it is a thing that ought to exist. See Louisa's complete outrage when her Mary is going to get MARRIED TO SOMEONE ELSE.) Or just hurt/comfort when things get bad - as they do all to often - with their friendship being the one constant.
* Crossover with Downton Abbey - maybe the Dowager or someone takes tea/stays at the hotel? (I wouldn't normally bring up non-Yuletide fandoms, but honestly, Julian Fellowes is in it himself as an actor in S2 and blatantly stole whole plots from it! Bates's backstory? Mrs Patmore's cooking tips? The Sybil/Branson romance? Checkout DofDS for the original!)
* any other likely crossover with another character coming to stay and probably bringing trouble in their wake.
* one of the rooms is haunted! (For real or otherwise as you please. Cf. above me being delighted about fantastical elements happening in mundane canons and making sensible people have to deal with preposterous things. I am pretty sure that Louisa would be equal to anything.)
Sapphire and Steel
Silver
I love Silver, as will become obvious if you poke about anywhere on my AO3 account or here on Dreamwidth, so pretty much anything you can write me will be adored.
I love Elements (or whatever you prefer to call them) - I love the mysterious nature of them, how they attract and repel and interact, and their strange abilities and distinct characters. I do very much love Sapphire and Steel themselves, of course. I just love Silver that little bit more! Feel free to use any established Elements, either from the show or the audios, those mentioned in cnaon (Mercury, Copper, Jet) or come up with your own, as well as obviously Sapphire and Steel.
I ship Silver, at least in passing, with everyone and everything from other Elements to flirting with humans to get the job done to any reasonably shiny AI probably up to and including a smart kettle, but also Sapphire/Silver/Steel is beautiful inhuman OT3 of my heart. I love the weird ways in which they are intimate yet see each other as mysteries, and how effective they are together, which seems to be maybe the elemental ideal and ship all corners of the OT3. Also I love the way Silver annoys Steel and Silver's nervous of Steel, but they're still fascinated with each other, as well as their individual and combined interactions with Sapphire. But, as I said, I will ship Silver with pretty much anyone or anything for the space of a fic (and I sometimes think that in some ways all Elements/Elements may plausibly be canon anyway).
* assignment & interaction with other Elements. And what has Silver been doing to annoy Copper? (I love Elemental gossip.) Elements/elements in their own weird way; things touching on their nature. (I love original elements in S&S fic, so feel free to speculate.)
* unseen Assignments with Sapphire and Steel - pre-canon assignments with Sapphire, since they seem to go way back. (Or perhaps, separately he also annoyed Steel in previous centuries?) Or post-canon (I'm sure they got out) - anything's possible! Are the Transients annoyed?
* historical assignments generally
* crossovers - like DW, it's a very go-anywhere fandom, so anything from my other fandoms, or fandoms we share that you wanted to explore from a S&S POV (or S&S's characters' weirdness from another fandom's POV).
* OT3 - other-than-sex intimacy, missing scenes, hurt/comfort, rescues from weird peril, Silver annoying Steel
* time loops
But one of the pleasures of the fandom is how everyone interprets its weirdness differently, so please just have fun doing S&S however feels right to you, and give me some more Silver along the way, and I'll be happy.
Fandom DNW: Evil/traitor Silver (& related please no specific stated exclusion of Silver/Sapphire/Steel); AUs where they're human.
The Shadow of the Tower
Henry VII of England
I love this series, for all its theatricality (or because of it - theatrical was not a bad word at the BBC in 1972). I like the theme of 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, events from his reign that were skipped over by the series, 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. 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 notes in the accounts.)
* 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.
I've mentioned some things from history - please understand that I'm not an expert and don't need you to know anything beyond the series. Just equally feel free to play with any historical stuff filtered through the tone of the show as you wish.
Canon DNWs: any Henry/Catherine Gordon (non-romantic interactions are welcome) or other non-Elizabeth het-ship for Henry; Elizabeth/Richard III.
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, in order of length:
Dracula (TV 1968) 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.)
Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio) - you probably know what DW is! However, while there are 100s of tie-in audios by Big Finish, to write a missing scene you wouldn't have to listen to many and the first 100 are all downloadable direct from the Big Finish site at knock-down prices, so if you wanted to try and pick up some Charley (Storm Warning is the first) & Evelyn (starts from The Marian Conspiracy) it'd be pretty easy. (And they're good!) You can sometimes pick up second hand CDs on eBay and things, too. The run with Lucie sometimes gets played on BBC radio, so if you're in the UK you can check them, but isn't part of the bargain 100 audios. (Benny is more complicated, but if you want to try The Shadow of the Scourge should be included.)
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.
The Duchess of Duke Street was a 26 episode historical drama (BBC 1976-7, 2 series of 13 x 50 mins) focusing on the rise of a scullery maid to hotel manager, based on the real story of Rosa Lewis, dubbed the Duchess of Jermyn Street. The UK channel Drama ran it a few years ago and did quite a good write up here. The DVDs have been out in various regions & can be picked up quite cheap (& I can find someone with it up on YT here). Fair warning - the first few episodes are very slow, but it gets much better after that &, as I said, Gemma Jones is truly amazing.
Sapphire & Steel was an SFF show (ITV 1979-81) consisting of 6 'Assignments' (made up of 4-8 25 min episodes each (think Classic Who serials), starring Joanna Lumley and David McCallum in the title roles. It's original, spooky and turns low-budget TV into an art form and will scare you with nursery rhymes, photographs, flowers, railway stations, clocks and motorway service stations. Plus there's an evil pillow. The lead characters are non-human mysterious 'elements' (or whatever you choose to call them) who each have particular powers, which they use to fight Time, which is always trying to break into reality and destroy things. Sapphire and Steel are our only regulars but they are helped out on occasions by 'specialists' or 'technicians' It's weird, original and if you've a love of SFF and any patience with this era's TV, I can't recommend it enough. It's out on DVD in both R1 & 2 and several people have it up on YouTube. You do need to watch most of it, if not all to get into it, because a lot of fannish stuff revolves around spoilery things from Assignment 6.
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