Dear Yuletide Letter 2020
17 Oct 2020 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisbluespiritThank you for writing for me! This letter is bound to be long, so tl;dr: I love all kinds of different things at different times, I love these fandoms, and I'm sure to enjoy whatever you come up with.
Any prompts are intended purely for inspiration, not to restrict your choices. Take what's useful and leave what isn't. I hope you have a lovely Yuletide.
That said, here is the long version...
Likes: hurt/comfort, rescues, fantasy, history, mystery, ghosts, casefic, time travel, time loops, crossovers, banter, humour, tropes, trope subversion, sensible people dealing with unexpected supernatural/sf, crack played straight, trapped together, fake marriage/marriage of convenience, accidental marriage, forced to work together, x times format, epistolary, apocalypse, crack played straight, winning through hard times to happy endings, comedy of manners/cultural differences, canon divergence AUs, historical/fantasy/supernatural AUs.
I love sensible people dealing with tropey stuff or fantastical things they never asked for, being locked in or otherwise landed in unlikely scenarios, whether serious or humorous, but I also love my chosen canons and will always enjoy canon-typical fic too.
Ship-wise, I prefer implied sex or lead-ins/sensuality to it over explicit/graphic scenes - emotions, touch/sensation, first times, undressing, hands, historical costumes, kissing, love conveyed by acts rather than words.
DNWs: over-eating, character bashing, genderswap, age regression, non-canonical pregnancy, incest, rape, explicit porn without plot, kidfic, issuefic, non-canonical body horror/unexpected physical transformations*, non-canonical identity headcanons, a/b/o.
* Vampires in Dracula are okay & re. the over-eating - mentions of food or eating are fine - I just have an odd squick about excessive over-eating in a short space of time (e.g. eating competitions, having to eat multiple meals in a row, jokes about ballooning up or exploding etc.)
Generally, references to DNWs that occur in canon are okay (unless I have said otherwise in the fandom sections), although I'd prefer no graphic focus on them where they are present.
I do enjoy many other setting AUs, but see individual fandoms for details as they are a DNW for some specific fandoms. In general, I'm happier with fantastical elements in my mundane canon than my fantastical canon becoming mundane, but that's not a hard and fast rule. (I'm kind of charmed by the idea of my canons as terrible coffee shop AUs!) I am fine with gen/het/femslash/slash/poly in general, and love the whole other-than-sex kind of thing that comes with non-humans like Elements. I don't want any heavy focus on any unrequested ships or characters, but I am fine with references to any canon character or relationship. (Any specific exceptions or clarifications will be in my individual Fandom DNWs below.)
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 exchange letters if you want to see any previous requests for additional ideas.
Happy writing!
Dracula (TV 1968)
Mina Harker, John Seward
This 1960s b&w TV adaptation was my introduction to Dracula and I fell in love with it. I am both amused by it and straight up love it for many reasons, and ship everyone lots, so I will be very happy whichever way you take it. I love how much it is its own thing, and the vampire lore involved is ambiguous. It makes for lots of fic possibilities, which is very freeing, and there's no need to have knowledge of the book. Use it as your own vampiric springboard!
I do love the whole thing and am very fond of Lucy and her interactions with John and Mina as well, but Mina and John are my favourites, both sensible (repressed?) Victorians who did not ask for this, but it was thrust upon them anyway in a cardboard Whitby gone mad. I do ship them but as long as your fic focuses on them both, we're good. I also enjoy some additional OT3 ships if that's more your cup of tea. See below for more.
* 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.)
* anything where you can give me Mina/John - in canon, diverging from it or straight up AU as above.
* post-canon Mina &/ John - Mina has to work a way free, preferably with bonus John/Mina (bonding over the loss of Lucy) and hurt/comfort. Or she stays vampirish (?) and does 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 maybe even getting together. (I am good with you sacrificing Jonathan in any way in this scenario. (Sorry, Jonathan.))
* post-canon - adventures fighting other evils/vampires, whether canon-compliant or not, maybe even with Mina/John/Jonathan as a thing (an idea that's definitely growing on me as a post-canon ship solution), or an AU with Mina/John/Lucy, 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 & even more so with troll-y vampires about.)
* I requested this for Just Married earlier in the year and if you want to use any of the freeforms from that as prompts, go right ahead, the letter is here, as they were all amazing.
I'm happy to see anyone else included, whether from the tagset or the show (I am even fond of the two housekeepers, clearly a sign I have rewatched this too many times), so feel free to include anyone you want in your story, but I do want the focus to be on Mina and John.
Fandom specific DNW: any Mina/Jonathan barring acknowledgement of their past relationship (Mina clearly still has some feelings), or as part of an OT3 with the main focus on Mina and John. (I just don't really buy them as a workable thing in this adaptation, not post-canon. Jonathan just does not seem to be into girls any more, after meeting the Count.)
The Power Game (TV 1968)
Pamela Wilder, Caswell Bligh, Susan Weldon, Colin Townley
I love this totally non-existent fandom and its bunch of terrible, charming, snarky 1960s businessmen, civil servants, and Lady Pamela (she is her own category). If you are here for this, then you are pretty much a walking miracle in my book, and I am going to be thrilled by whatever you do.
It was hard work deciding who to include, but I decided in the end that these four are probably my favourites/and/or the ones where I most want any fic, but I will be very happy to see any of the other regulars turn up in your fic if you are wondering how the hell you write TPG without Wilder or pining for Don or Kenneth.
This is definitely a request where I'm happy with any of the requested characters separately or combined as you please. Although, that said, if you want to lock them all in the NEB boardroom together for hours for devious reasons that would be AMAZING. Go for it. Any combination is great - everybody has fascinating or potentially fascinating and devious interactions, and almost all ships are possible at least in passing if you want to advance your career/get rich/get revenge/information/indulge curiosity badly enough. (I don't think I OTP anyone here, but I am interested in combinations, both gen and if somebody took things further than in canon in that direction.)
* Pamela - words fail over Barbara Murray's amazing everything in this (not least her remarkably silly hats) so I will love anything about her. Having tea with Caswell! I am still miffed we don't see that, so give me that scene, or any other little moment together. They have that one in canon, and it's surprisingly great - how do they interact at other times? I have a random hankering for a possible Susan/Pamela thing, because it would be understandable for Pamela to be curious about the one other woman who's been a serious rival, and she could charm anyone, plus Susan could easily have Reasons of ambition/paying John out/obtaining information. Colin is less obvious, but I'd be delighted to see them interacting for some reason - maybe she's getting Susan/John related information out of him without him even noticing? Sort of sideways commiserating on the fallout of an affair they both hate? They clearly have already met in "The Switch" anyway - tell me how, if you think there's a story there.
I'm very happy to also see her with Don or John or Lincoln, if you want to go that way. The only thing I'm less keen is backstory for her, or the whole Hagadan affair (but I don't mind mention of it, I just don't want any major focus on it or Hagadan particularly). But Don & Pamela and Don/Pamela, and Lincoln/Pamela (and their sheer illegal prettiness) and the weirdness of both as triangles with John are all great, so if you're wishing I'd asked for that instead, go right ahead. (Don being more distressed at Pamela's affair than John! Being jealous of Lincoln!) (Which one of the Wilders is Lincoln most interested in anyway? Good question...) I wouldn't especially want just romantic John/Pamela, because that's always kind of disturbing when it happens, although I like that she always does know how to make it happen & I'm happy to see all their usual interactions.
* Caswell - Oh, Caswell. Caswell is the worst, but a shove to one side and he could maybe have been so much better and Clifford Evans is just great. Explore him all you like - his better nature, his worst demons, the epic rivalry with John, his mixed up relationship with Kenneth and Justine, and his ending and the whole terribleness of that where he doesn't even know how to behave well any more. Also what was Kenneth's mother like? Despite Kenneth's accusations, it sounds as if they actually had a good marriage (Kenneth seems to view him confiding in her business stuff as negative, but that sounds like a good thing to me.) Re. the other requested characters - Pamela holding off the lion for John, or Caswell bullying Colin again, or working surprisingly well with Susan despite their differences are all great. Sneaky Caswell undoing himself in some inevitable way is also always welcome.
* Susan - she starts off unevenly perhaps, but I love her and the way she alone of all the main characters actually does find a way to walk the line between having principles and ambition - taking the lessons she learned from John and using them in the way she chooses. I miss her very much in S3, although I think it was good to have her walk away at that point. I'd be interested in a Susan/Pamela encounter (she's very aware of Pamela's considerable abilities), or Pamela & Susan, maybe finding more in common than they expected, or meeting up post-canon. As I'll say below, I have a lot of thoughts and questions about her relationship with Colin. Fic about her and Caswell and their unlikely NEB team up would be good. Or how did she get into that job/ her interview with Colin? What about her uni friendship with Earl Cameron's character? Does she ever run into Lincoln Dowling (who is in so many ways her ironic replacement)? And if you want other characters with her, again, feel free!
DNW: Susan/Caswell. Unless it was fake. If they for some devious reason had to fake a relationship in S2 (to freak John out?) it would be terrible and hilarious. But not for real. I also wouldn't want just romantic John/Susan or her going all domestic as she does occasionally in S1, or at least not without her professional and ambitious side being present/winning out.
* Colin is an odd choice, perhaps, but he seems to have left mid-arc, so I'm fascinated as to how it would have gone if he'd stayed and been the one who put Susan in a tug of loyalty position with Wilder before getting chewed up and spat out at the end of S1, plus the possibility that maybe he was/could be one of her "safe" Treasury divorces in S2. But you don't need to speculate on that theory - I love their relationship as we see it in S1! He genuinely seems to value Susan for how good she is at her job (and how she can advance his, of course, it is TPG!), and the way it fell out makes him one of the few decent running characters. No wonder he didn't stand a chance. But there was potentially a really odd Colin-Susan-Wilder triangle going on with love (that is actually pragmatism) vs pragmatism and respect (that maybe even is love, if my theories aren't completely wild) and I'd love to see more of it. What if Colin and Wilder didn't meet on the stairs in "Saturday's Women"? What then? Or reunion fic in S2 or post-canon, or how they met. Susan defending him against evil!Ian Holm makes me happy, too. (I like Colin & Susan, or unrequited Colin/Susan, and would also be totally happy with actual Susan/Colin, but only as long as she keeps her career (in an era were marriage still tended to spell the end for a professional woman).
Or with the other characters - Caswell bullying Colin again, or Wilder bullying him, and all the reasons he hates them both and all their ilk, or Pamela flattening him with charm and efficiency because she wants something. Or just tell me what all his initials on his nameboard stand for - I'm amused and curious, given that the series considers nobody who's anybody needs a nameboard on their door... Poor Colin.)
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 include them, and, indeed, any established Elements, either from the show or the audios, those mentioned in passing, like Mercury, Copper & Jet, or come up with your own original elements.
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. Sapphire/Silver/Steel, though, is the 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. 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 - it's a 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 (♥), Sapphire and Silver flirting with each other or admiring/being amused at each other flirting with others.
* time loops
But one of the pleasures of the fandom is how everyone interprets its weirdness differently, so please just have fun writing S&S however works for you, and give me some more Silver along the way, and I'll be happy.
Fandom DNW: Evil/traitor Silver & no specific stated exclusion of Silver/Sapphire/Steel (they don't have to be a thing in your fic, but don't tell me that they are not/can never be a thing/Silver has his own partner and can stop bothering them etc.); AUs where they're human (unless of course it's not an AU, it's a terrible temporary time-related issue).
The Shadow of the Tower
Henry VII of England
I love this series. I like its 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 episode treatment, or anything 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, and I find him really interesting. Anything you want to write will be wonderful - pre-canon, missing scenes/years, post-canon, AU (whether canon divergence or other setting).
* several of the episodes are based on lines in Henry's account books - I'd love a fic that did the same. Some other examples I've found of notes where he gave money to... "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'." (I think the accounts are transcribed online, so anything that strikes you from any source you find.)
* I love the awkward Henry/Elizabeth of York dynamics in this and the 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, or when they went to Calais, or anything else you choose.
* more Henry & Margaret Beaufort would also be great. I'm v intrigued by the exchange they have in episode 6 & what Henry means by that - that he feels she hasn't always been on his side - and would love to see the painful complications between them that implies explored - but anything focusing on their relationship would be lovely.
* related, there's also this apocryphal story, which always sounds like an SotT moment to me, if it inspires you: 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 Henry trying to win Lincoln over, and Lincoln's amazing pre-battle outburst ("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 angst and obsession and unacknowledged shippiness very welcome.
* AUs. I mean, anything, canon divergence, modern AUs, fantastic AUs, Elizabeth/Henry 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). I think the way parts of canon are so weird already makes magic or the supernatural seem completely plausible within its world. (I mean, there's one whole episode where incompentent and dodgily accented plotters and spies try to kill Henry by magic as it is.)
I want all the things, so have fun with whatever aspect of the series, period, and Henry that grabs you. I'm happy for you to bring in any other characters, whether from the show, or historical people you'd like to see in a SotT version.
Canon DNWs: any Henry/Catherine Gordon (non-romantic interactions are welcome) or other non-Elizabeth het-ship for Henry; Elizabeth/Richard III.
Sid Halley series - Dick Francis
Sid Halley, Charles Roland
I love Sid & Charles's relationship - it's quite unusual and great, and I latched 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.
* random, but I am always up for weird stuff in mundane canons, so: 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. In this kind of scenario, I'd totally be up for shippiness as well. (I think the relationship and age difference combined would weird at least one or both of them out too much in canon, given that they can't even ever admit out loud whatever their actual feelings are anyway. ♥)
* Sid needs to recuperate at Aynsford (again).
I mean, really, just more of them being them, and I will be happy! I read the books and then I re-read their TOO FEW pages, and, honestly, I'm a bit of a fraud because those are the only bits of the book I cared about or can remember, and I haven't read any other Dick Francis, so just give me more pages of them and I'll be very happy. That is all I ask of you, dear author. I mean, I'll never say no to plot, but for once that was not what I read the series for. XD
DNWs: Stuff from Under Orders about Charles getting too old DOES NOT EXIST la la la. I also haven't read the non-Dick Francis sequels, either, but I gather that is pretty much the generally approved approach anyway.
How to find my requested fandoms, should you wish to, 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 at the fandom promo post.
Dick Francis's Sid Halley series is 4 crime books that should be generally easy to get hold of & not long. Plus, if you only want to read one, Whip Hand is my favourite and contains everything you need to write my request.
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 Power Game was an ITV show that ran from 1965-69 about a lot of terrible power mad people making concrete and being civil servants. It is surprisingly awesome, serialized and snarky, has some brilliant arcs, and packs the most amazing gut punch. But it is 1960s TV, which is problematic by default even before you get to one about problematic people, just to warn you. Details here at the Promo post. I recommend S3 wholeheartedly, but you can get away with S1-2 and that's all online. If you choose to write Colin, then you would only need the first half of S1 (and if possible a couple of later episodes, the finale, and Susan's first ep in S2. 2.2, I think, re. her Treasury dating plans.)
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.
Silver is only in A3 and 6, but I would definitely recommend at least also watching A1 (because that's about the only explanation you'll ever get) and A4, although tbh the only one I'd really suggest skipping if you were in a hurry would be the non-PJ Hammond-penned A5.
Any prompts are intended purely for inspiration, not to restrict your choices. Take what's useful and leave what isn't. I hope you have a lovely Yuletide.
That said, here is the long version...
Likes: hurt/comfort, rescues, fantasy, history, mystery, ghosts, casefic, time travel, time loops, crossovers, banter, humour, tropes, trope subversion, sensible people dealing with unexpected supernatural/sf, crack played straight, trapped together, fake marriage/marriage of convenience, accidental marriage, forced to work together, x times format, epistolary, apocalypse, crack played straight, winning through hard times to happy endings, comedy of manners/cultural differences, canon divergence AUs, historical/fantasy/supernatural AUs.
I love sensible people dealing with tropey stuff or fantastical things they never asked for, being locked in or otherwise landed in unlikely scenarios, whether serious or humorous, but I also love my chosen canons and will always enjoy canon-typical fic too.
Ship-wise, I prefer implied sex or lead-ins/sensuality to it over explicit/graphic scenes - emotions, touch/sensation, first times, undressing, hands, historical costumes, kissing, love conveyed by acts rather than words.
DNWs: over-eating, character bashing, genderswap, age regression, non-canonical pregnancy, incest, rape, explicit porn without plot, kidfic, issuefic, non-canonical body horror/unexpected physical transformations*, non-canonical identity headcanons, a/b/o.
* Vampires in Dracula are okay & re. the over-eating - mentions of food or eating are fine - I just have an odd squick about excessive over-eating in a short space of time (e.g. eating competitions, having to eat multiple meals in a row, jokes about ballooning up or exploding etc.)
Generally, references to DNWs that occur in canon are okay (unless I have said otherwise in the fandom sections), although I'd prefer no graphic focus on them where they are present.
I do enjoy many other setting AUs, but see individual fandoms for details as they are a DNW for some specific fandoms. In general, I'm happier with fantastical elements in my mundane canon than my fantastical canon becoming mundane, but that's not a hard and fast rule. (I'm kind of charmed by the idea of my canons as terrible coffee shop AUs!) I am fine with gen/het/femslash/slash/poly in general, and love the whole other-than-sex kind of thing that comes with non-humans like Elements. I don't want any heavy focus on any unrequested ships or characters, but I am fine with references to any canon character or relationship. (Any specific exceptions or clarifications will be in my individual Fandom DNWs below.)
I'm
Happy writing!
Dracula (TV 1968)
Mina Harker, John Seward
This 1960s b&w TV adaptation was my introduction to Dracula and I fell in love with it. I am both amused by it and straight up love it for many reasons, and ship everyone lots, so I will be very happy whichever way you take it. I love how much it is its own thing, and the vampire lore involved is ambiguous. It makes for lots of fic possibilities, which is very freeing, and there's no need to have knowledge of the book. Use it as your own vampiric springboard!
I do love the whole thing and am very fond of Lucy and her interactions with John and Mina as well, but Mina and John are my favourites, both sensible (repressed?) Victorians who did not ask for this, but it was thrust upon them anyway in a cardboard Whitby gone mad. I do ship them but as long as your fic focuses on them both, we're good. I also enjoy some additional OT3 ships if that's more your cup of tea. See below for more.
* 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.)
* anything where you can give me Mina/John - in canon, diverging from it or straight up AU as above.
* post-canon Mina &/ John - Mina has to work a way free, preferably with bonus John/Mina (bonding over the loss of Lucy) and hurt/comfort. Or she stays vampirish (?) and does 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 maybe even getting together. (I am good with you sacrificing Jonathan in any way in this scenario. (Sorry, Jonathan.))
* post-canon - adventures fighting other evils/vampires, whether canon-compliant or not, maybe even with Mina/John/Jonathan as a thing (an idea that's definitely growing on me as a post-canon ship solution), or an AU with Mina/John/Lucy, 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 & even more so with troll-y vampires about.)
* I requested this for Just Married earlier in the year and if you want to use any of the freeforms from that as prompts, go right ahead, the letter is here, as they were all amazing.
I'm happy to see anyone else included, whether from the tagset or the show (I am even fond of the two housekeepers, clearly a sign I have rewatched this too many times), so feel free to include anyone you want in your story, but I do want the focus to be on Mina and John.
Fandom specific DNW: any Mina/Jonathan barring acknowledgement of their past relationship (Mina clearly still has some feelings), or as part of an OT3 with the main focus on Mina and John. (I just don't really buy them as a workable thing in this adaptation, not post-canon. Jonathan just does not seem to be into girls any more, after meeting the Count.)
The Power Game (TV 1968)
Pamela Wilder, Caswell Bligh, Susan Weldon, Colin Townley
I love this totally non-existent fandom and its bunch of terrible, charming, snarky 1960s businessmen, civil servants, and Lady Pamela (she is her own category). If you are here for this, then you are pretty much a walking miracle in my book, and I am going to be thrilled by whatever you do.
It was hard work deciding who to include, but I decided in the end that these four are probably my favourites/and/or the ones where I most want any fic, but I will be very happy to see any of the other regulars turn up in your fic if you are wondering how the hell you write TPG without Wilder or pining for Don or Kenneth.
This is definitely a request where I'm happy with any of the requested characters separately or combined as you please. Although, that said, if you want to lock them all in the NEB boardroom together for hours for devious reasons that would be AMAZING. Go for it. Any combination is great - everybody has fascinating or potentially fascinating and devious interactions, and almost all ships are possible at least in passing if you want to advance your career/get rich/get revenge/information/indulge curiosity badly enough. (I don't think I OTP anyone here, but I am interested in combinations, both gen and if somebody took things further than in canon in that direction.)
* Pamela - words fail over Barbara Murray's amazing everything in this (not least her remarkably silly hats) so I will love anything about her. Having tea with Caswell! I am still miffed we don't see that, so give me that scene, or any other little moment together. They have that one in canon, and it's surprisingly great - how do they interact at other times? I have a random hankering for a possible Susan/Pamela thing, because it would be understandable for Pamela to be curious about the one other woman who's been a serious rival, and she could charm anyone, plus Susan could easily have Reasons of ambition/paying John out/obtaining information. Colin is less obvious, but I'd be delighted to see them interacting for some reason - maybe she's getting Susan/John related information out of him without him even noticing? Sort of sideways commiserating on the fallout of an affair they both hate? They clearly have already met in "The Switch" anyway - tell me how, if you think there's a story there.
I'm very happy to also see her with Don or John or Lincoln, if you want to go that way. The only thing I'm less keen is backstory for her, or the whole Hagadan affair (but I don't mind mention of it, I just don't want any major focus on it or Hagadan particularly). But Don & Pamela and Don/Pamela, and Lincoln/Pamela (and their sheer illegal prettiness) and the weirdness of both as triangles with John are all great, so if you're wishing I'd asked for that instead, go right ahead. (Don being more distressed at Pamela's affair than John! Being jealous of Lincoln!) (Which one of the Wilders is Lincoln most interested in anyway? Good question...) I wouldn't especially want just romantic John/Pamela, because that's always kind of disturbing when it happens, although I like that she always does know how to make it happen & I'm happy to see all their usual interactions.
* Caswell - Oh, Caswell. Caswell is the worst, but a shove to one side and he could maybe have been so much better and Clifford Evans is just great. Explore him all you like - his better nature, his worst demons, the epic rivalry with John, his mixed up relationship with Kenneth and Justine, and his ending and the whole terribleness of that where he doesn't even know how to behave well any more. Also what was Kenneth's mother like? Despite Kenneth's accusations, it sounds as if they actually had a good marriage (Kenneth seems to view him confiding in her business stuff as negative, but that sounds like a good thing to me.) Re. the other requested characters - Pamela holding off the lion for John, or Caswell bullying Colin again, or working surprisingly well with Susan despite their differences are all great. Sneaky Caswell undoing himself in some inevitable way is also always welcome.
* Susan - she starts off unevenly perhaps, but I love her and the way she alone of all the main characters actually does find a way to walk the line between having principles and ambition - taking the lessons she learned from John and using them in the way she chooses. I miss her very much in S3, although I think it was good to have her walk away at that point. I'd be interested in a Susan/Pamela encounter (she's very aware of Pamela's considerable abilities), or Pamela & Susan, maybe finding more in common than they expected, or meeting up post-canon. As I'll say below, I have a lot of thoughts and questions about her relationship with Colin. Fic about her and Caswell and their unlikely NEB team up would be good. Or how did she get into that job/ her interview with Colin? What about her uni friendship with Earl Cameron's character? Does she ever run into Lincoln Dowling (who is in so many ways her ironic replacement)? And if you want other characters with her, again, feel free!
DNW: Susan/Caswell. Unless it was fake. If they for some devious reason had to fake a relationship in S2 (to freak John out?) it would be terrible and hilarious. But not for real. I also wouldn't want just romantic John/Susan or her going all domestic as she does occasionally in S1, or at least not without her professional and ambitious side being present/winning out.
* Colin is an odd choice, perhaps, but he seems to have left mid-arc, so I'm fascinated as to how it would have gone if he'd stayed and been the one who put Susan in a tug of loyalty position with Wilder before getting chewed up and spat out at the end of S1, plus the possibility that maybe he was/could be one of her "safe" Treasury divorces in S2. But you don't need to speculate on that theory - I love their relationship as we see it in S1! He genuinely seems to value Susan for how good she is at her job (and how she can advance his, of course, it is TPG!), and the way it fell out makes him one of the few decent running characters. No wonder he didn't stand a chance. But there was potentially a really odd Colin-Susan-Wilder triangle going on with love (that is actually pragmatism) vs pragmatism and respect (that maybe even is love, if my theories aren't completely wild) and I'd love to see more of it. What if Colin and Wilder didn't meet on the stairs in "Saturday's Women"? What then? Or reunion fic in S2 or post-canon, or how they met. Susan defending him against evil!Ian Holm makes me happy, too. (I like Colin & Susan, or unrequited Colin/Susan, and would also be totally happy with actual Susan/Colin, but only as long as she keeps her career (in an era were marriage still tended to spell the end for a professional woman).
Or with the other characters - Caswell bullying Colin again, or Wilder bullying him, and all the reasons he hates them both and all their ilk, or Pamela flattening him with charm and efficiency because she wants something. Or just tell me what all his initials on his nameboard stand for - I'm amused and curious, given that the series considers nobody who's anybody needs a nameboard on their door... Poor Colin.)
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 include them, and, indeed, any established Elements, either from the show or the audios, those mentioned in passing, like Mercury, Copper & Jet, or come up with your own original elements.
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. Sapphire/Silver/Steel, though, is the 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. 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 - it's a 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 (♥), Sapphire and Silver flirting with each other or admiring/being amused at each other flirting with others.
* time loops
But one of the pleasures of the fandom is how everyone interprets its weirdness differently, so please just have fun writing S&S however works for you, and give me some more Silver along the way, and I'll be happy.
Fandom DNW: Evil/traitor Silver & no specific stated exclusion of Silver/Sapphire/Steel (they don't have to be a thing in your fic, but don't tell me that they are not/can never be a thing/Silver has his own partner and can stop bothering them etc.); AUs where they're human (unless of course it's not an AU, it's a terrible temporary time-related issue).
The Shadow of the Tower
Henry VII of England
I love this series. I like its 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 episode treatment, or anything 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, and I find him really interesting. Anything you want to write will be wonderful - pre-canon, missing scenes/years, post-canon, AU (whether canon divergence or other setting).
* several of the episodes are based on lines in Henry's account books - I'd love a fic that did the same. Some other examples I've found of notes where he gave money to... "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'." (I think the accounts are transcribed online, so anything that strikes you from any source you find.)
* I love the awkward Henry/Elizabeth of York dynamics in this and the 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, or when they went to Calais, or anything else you choose.
* more Henry & Margaret Beaufort would also be great. I'm v intrigued by the exchange they have in episode 6 & what Henry means by that - that he feels she hasn't always been on his side - and would love to see the painful complications between them that implies explored - but anything focusing on their relationship would be lovely.
* related, there's also this apocryphal story, which always sounds like an SotT moment to me, if it inspires you: 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 Henry trying to win Lincoln over, and Lincoln's amazing pre-battle outburst ("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 angst and obsession and unacknowledged shippiness very welcome.
* AUs. I mean, anything, canon divergence, modern AUs, fantastic AUs, Elizabeth/Henry 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). I think the way parts of canon are so weird already makes magic or the supernatural seem completely plausible within its world. (I mean, there's one whole episode where incompentent and dodgily accented plotters and spies try to kill Henry by magic as it is.)
I want all the things, so have fun with whatever aspect of the series, period, and Henry that grabs you. I'm happy for you to bring in any other characters, whether from the show, or historical people you'd like to see in a SotT version.
Canon DNWs: any Henry/Catherine Gordon (non-romantic interactions are welcome) or other non-Elizabeth het-ship for Henry; Elizabeth/Richard III.
Sid Halley series - Dick Francis
Sid Halley, Charles Roland
I love Sid & Charles's relationship - it's quite unusual and great, and I latched 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.
* random, but I am always up for weird stuff in mundane canons, so: 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. In this kind of scenario, I'd totally be up for shippiness as well. (I think the relationship and age difference combined would weird at least one or both of them out too much in canon, given that they can't even ever admit out loud whatever their actual feelings are anyway. ♥)
* Sid needs to recuperate at Aynsford (again).
I mean, really, just more of them being them, and I will be happy! I read the books and then I re-read their TOO FEW pages, and, honestly, I'm a bit of a fraud because those are the only bits of the book I cared about or can remember, and I haven't read any other Dick Francis, so just give me more pages of them and I'll be very happy. That is all I ask of you, dear author. I mean, I'll never say no to plot, but for once that was not what I read the series for. XD
DNWs: Stuff from Under Orders about Charles getting too old DOES NOT EXIST la la la. I also haven't read the non-Dick Francis sequels, either, but I gather that is pretty much the generally approved approach anyway.
How to find my requested fandoms, should you wish to, 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 at the fandom promo post.
Dick Francis's Sid Halley series is 4 crime books that should be generally easy to get hold of & not long. Plus, if you only want to read one, Whip Hand is my favourite and contains everything you need to write my request.
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 Power Game was an ITV show that ran from 1965-69 about a lot of terrible power mad people making concrete and being civil servants. It is surprisingly awesome, serialized and snarky, has some brilliant arcs, and packs the most amazing gut punch. But it is 1960s TV, which is problematic by default even before you get to one about problematic people, just to warn you. Details here at the Promo post. I recommend S3 wholeheartedly, but you can get away with S1-2 and that's all online. If you choose to write Colin, then you would only need the first half of S1 (and if possible a couple of later episodes, the finale, and Susan's first ep in S2. 2.2, I think, re. her Treasury dating plans.)
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.
Silver is only in A3 and 6, but I would definitely recommend at least also watching A1 (because that's about the only explanation you'll ever get) and A4, although tbh the only one I'd really suggest skipping if you were in a hurry would be the non-PJ Hammond-penned A5.
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Date: 17 Oct 2020 05:50 pm (UTC)' 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.)'*
Goddammit, I so cannot write this (I'm in a rather bad spiral and cannot write much of anything currently), but I had a sudden thought of Dr Seward and crew encountering Mannerling. :D
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Date: 17 Oct 2020 05:55 pm (UTC)But, ha, yes, Mannerling would be fun! I suppose Lucy and Jonathan would be consumed by desire for it and the others having to avoid ending up murdered in the process. XD
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Date: 17 Oct 2020 06:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 17 Oct 2020 07:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 20 Oct 2020 01:18 pm (UTC)She is amazing, and amazingly pretty; Pamela is definitely my favourite thing about this show, and I will be eyeing your request with interest.
Another thing: Alfie was in one episode of the pre-TPG show, The Plane Makers! No idea what this role entailed or even who Len Gower was, but he was quite the dish <3
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Date: 20 Oct 2020 05:33 pm (UTC)This is pretty much the rule, both among the total of, uh, three modern viewers I've come across and the audience at the time. It is a fair rule, yes. XD
Alfie was in one episode of the pre-TPG show, The Plane Makers! No idea what this role entailed or even who Len Gower was, but he was quite the dish <3
He was, but it's been burninated I'm afraid! However, The Plane Makers was much less serialised and tended to follow random workers at the plane factory, so he was probably Random Factory Worker of the Week. (I haven't watched much of it, but I did pick up the surviving S1/2 release cheap, but it was mainly a bit dull; it only perked up when Wilfred Greatorex wrote a Wilder-centric episode that felt rather TPG-ish. However, Mariocki tells me there is some good stuff in the rest of it, including Peter Jeffrey as a semi-regular, which is tempting. He's usually just the villain of the week. (You know whodunnit if Peter Jeffrey is a guest that week in anything ever. Except SotT, but he got burned alive that one time he was good. Although he also got burned alive when he was evil in The Onedin Line so he can't win.)
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Date: 21 Oct 2020 03:05 pm (UTC)oh no, not the burnination! I would take so much delight in watching his turn as random worker in the plane makers' factory, even if it had no Barbara Murray in it. (I can't remember Peter Jeffrey, but I must have seen him in a bunch of things, and he does indeed seem to be the baddie in most of them.)
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Date: 21 Oct 2020 04:41 pm (UTC)even if it had no Barbara Murray in it.
She was only a semi-regular in TPM, so that they temporarily lost her and Pamela was played by Ann Bell for a season. I kind of refuse to recognise the full canonicity of The Plane Makers, because a) we see Don's wife Pat and clearly she is just Don's made up line of a defence against the Wilders and not actually real and b) in TPM the Wilders have a son. In TPG, they seem to have forgotten he exists. Which is careless, even for John and Pamela Wilder! XD
I can't remember Peter Jeffrey, but I must have seen him in a bunch of things, and he does indeed seem to be the baddie in most of them.
Peter Jeffrey is foremost of that band of ridiculously likeable villains of the week who used to pop up in everything. He was Count Grendel in Doctor Who, but he was in pretty much everything right up until he died in 1999. I was watching JM's episode of Bergerac and they were setting JM up as the main villain, but clearly it could not be him when they had Peter Jeffrey in the cast and, indeed, Peter Jeffrey was the real villain. He was in Richard Heffer's ep of the 1970s Survivors and the question of who is the real villain came up again, and, honestly, however badly Richard Heffer was behaving, if you're in old tellyland and Peter Jeffrey's taken over your house, things are not going to turn out well. XD
(I glanced at his IMBD before typing this and realised for the first time that his two turns of being burned alive on TV happened in the same year, and now I'm even more amused. Ah, 1972, a good year for setting Peter Jeffrey alight!!)