Dear Yuletide Writer 2017
Sep. 28th, 2017 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
doranwenThis is my eighth Yuletide, and I've had so much fun each year. I'm excited you're writing a story for me, and I promise I will comment with much appreciation! I did a lot of describing the awesomeness about each fandom and/or character, and gave a few prompts in case you find them useful. I hope you have a lot of fun writing for me. :)
I love characters who are strong as well as characters who are vulnerable, I love characters who have quiet depth, characters with an active inner life, characters who think and feel… You'll probably see this in the characters I requested. :)
I once made up a 101 favorite tropes list (in no particular order), so feel free to make use of those if any of them get your muse going: http://doranwen.livejournal.com/246063.html
Besides those tropes, here are my general likes:
deep platonic friendship, romantic friendship, asexual romance, found families, apocalyptic fic, hurt/comfort, nonsexual physical touch (including cuddling), self-sacrifice, characters being vulnerable, character redemption, survival fic, positive treatment of religion, characters dealing with trauma, trust building, missing scenes, canon divergence AU (especially fix-it fic)
DNWs: sex or sexual feelings, supernatural/fantasy beings (elves, vampires, werewolves, gnomes, zombies, etc.), AUs other than canon divergence or alt beginnings, deathfic or horror, calling an adult "baby" or "darling", mpreg, crackfic, gore (mild violence is OK, just not as graphic as a surgery documentary), uncensored profanity, first/second person fic
If you're crossover-inclined, here's a list of fandoms you could cross with the requested ones (besides, of course, any of my other requests):
1-800-Missing (TV) - love Jess, Brooke, and Sunny so much
C-16: FBI - Amanda and Annie are both fantastic, and Amanda's relationship with Jack is interesting
Flood (2007) - love Sam and Rob, and Patricia and Leonard, and I might be slightly shippy with those two pairs…
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman - this is in the tagset, even—Lois and Clark are my favs, though I also enjoy S1 Jimmy (I always picture him in stories I read, rather than the actor from S2+)
Lord of the Rings - books only, please
The Pretender - this is also in the tagset—Jarod and Miss Parker are my favs
Push (2009) - this is also in the tagset—am such a Nick/Cassie fan
Rizzoli & Isles (TV) - Jane and Maura are fantastic
Smallville - S1-S3 only, am a Clark/Chloe fan and not into Erica Durance's Lois, nor any of the magic stuff that came in S4
Stick It (2006) - I love Haley, lol
Sue Thomas F.B.Eye - Myles and Tara are my favs, but I love Sue and Jack too
Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010) - I'm not sure exactly how you'd cross something like that with any of my requests, but I love the whole idea of it, even
Women's Murder Club (TV) - this is also in the tagset—Lindsay and Cindy are my favs but I also like Claire a lot
X-Men movieverse - original two films only, please
You can find specific crossover-only prompts here if that interests you.
Don't worry if someone's written a similar idea before. My first real fandom was one where people used to write a dozen versions of the same TV ep, and I loved reading them all. There are never too many versions of the same story, in my opinion.
And now to the requests (in the order they appear in the tagset):
Worldweavers - Alma Alexander
Basic premise: Galathea Winthrop (aka Thea) is a Double Seventh, a seventh child of seventh children. This should mean she's good at something really special, right? Except she can't do magic at all. And Ars Magica is part of the curriculum of every school in the entire nation—except for one: the Wandless Academy (which is sometimes called the Last Ditch School for the Incurably Incompetent). But between a summer school (with a class of one) like no other, and various unusual events, Thea begins to discover the gifts she has never known she had. Oh, and save the world in the process.
I didn't nominate/request any characters because I'd like to leave things open for worldbuilding. The sheer idea of a world where Ars Magica is part of the entire school curriculum—really, where magic is so woven into the way things happen that coffeeshops use spells to keep people's orders straight, you can buy a spell to keep gardens tidy, and a magic allergy is extremely life-threatening. Oh, and throw in the feral libraries, with elevators that act like four-year-olds! I fell in love with the world with that part. Just pure awesomeness! I also enjoy that part of it is set in my region of the US (the Pacific Northwest). I also love Thea's story, so if you're feeling more of a character-driven story, I'd love fic about her! For this fandom I'd love OCs, especially since I'm more interested in the way things work than in the specific characters' stories (other than Thea).
I like how Thea's friends grow over time, and you can totally throw them in, but I'd prefer that the fic not focus on them. I'm less interested in the Anasazi, Grandmother Spider/Tawaha/the Trickster, Tesla and all of that; feel free to leave them out. The Alphiri and Faele are not my thing, and we know little of the Dwarrowrim, so I'd prefer if the fic not focus on those polities, as they're called in the books.
Prompts:
I'd love something about the education system, from a child starting their first Ars Magica classes to the creation of the Wandless Academy. I'm a math teacher, and the mention of mathemagic, spell-solving of equations, and fractionators had me wishing I could see more of those. Or write something about magic run amok, like feral libraries, or magic as used in crimes and criminal justice, etc. Or explore some of the other types of magic (the ones mentioned in the list of all the things they tried in order to find Thea's magic). Or maybe something with society setup, like the Federal Bureau of Magic, or how it's integrated into the everyday lives of people (note the bit in the first book about people not using cars much due to portals, slipways, transfigurations . . .), even as regards to having magic allergies (the medical profession would be interesting!) Use whatever you know well. I'm not into sports (the only possible exception is Olympic gymnastics or ice skating which I watched back in the '90s, mainly) or fashion, but I'll find just about any other industry fascinating; I like complex systems and how they work (hence my fascination with air traffic control and airports in general). The world of Worldweavers feels familiar but there are so many interesting changes!
If you find yourself inspired by Thea, I'd love something set after Dawn of Magic, where she settles into her full power, finishes at Amford, etc. Does she create anything really special in her life? Like the Elemental houses, for instance. Something that no one else could do.
Where to find canon: Amazon is the place to get these. On the US side, they're only $3-$5 for the e-books. You can find links to all four here for the US Amazon, or look at your local Amazon.
Gold Diggers (1995)
Basic premise: Also known as Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain (1995), the film tells the story of two girls who become close friends and essentially save each other's lives. There's also a plotline involving gold (naturally, given the name), but the story is essentially a story of friendship.
Oh, fandom of my childhood. I LOVED this movie to death. So much so that I spent hours imagining what I now know to be called fanfic, whereupon I changed Beth and Jody's name to Sara and Ricki, and made their family lives nasty enough so they would run away to live in Bear Mountain for the rest of their lives and adopt runaway orphan kids and … yeah. I kid you not. I thought the whole "best friends run away and live together forever happily ever after" was the perfect ending EVER when I was 13, lol.
The thing that captivated me about the movie was most particularly the friendship between the two of them. Beth is fascinated by Jody from the get-go (she goes from confused by just seeing her fight with a kid, to mad with running into her with the groceries—and yet she still heads off with her after the Winnie the Pooh discussion), her toughness that hides an underlying vulnerability and hurt. And Jody appreciates Beth as someone who actually listens to her, who is loyal and supportive. (I think I saw myself some in Beth, and longed for something like what they had.)
I also loved the survivalist theme of Jody wanting to live in Bear Mountain. A lot of my "mindfic" from my childhood days centered around some character surviving by a combination of scavenging (which included raiding "civilization" for anything useful, sometimes by less than legal means), farming/hunting, etc. I wasn't always very realistic about it (since I didn't know much about survival as a 12-year-old), but I loved the idea of it.
I nominated and requested both Beth and Jody because to me, this is the core of the film. :) Really, they are the heart of it all. I'd love anything from their friendship during the rest of the summer after the events in the film, or at school the following year; they're local celebrities now, but they're not going to let that get to their heads. What's popularity compared to a friendship you can count on? I'm good with turning it into a romantic friendship, too. I just love the bond these two have! I can see them talking about their dads, about what they'll do when they're grown up, going on more adventures at Bear Mountain… Feel free to AU things too, if you like the idea of them running away for whatever reason, or if Jody had actually killed Ray, or if Ray did worse things besides beat up Lynette. (I'm quite OK with some dark themes here as long as the girls end up together and have each other.) Or what if Beth didn't crash the boat and Jody was living in Bear Mountain by herself? (whether Ray lived or not) So many ways to focus on these two girls, and I would have so much love for whatever you write. :D
Where to find canon: You can find the DVD transfer at the US Amazon or try searching your local Amazon. It may be findable other places as well.
Alphas (TV)
Basic premise: This show has been called "X-Men for thinking people", and is a deconstruction of humans with superpowers. (The tagline is "Their abilities make them super. Their actions make them human.") Dr. Lee Rosen (played by David Strathairn) is a therapist who manages a team of Alphas, people who have abilities anyone else might - except dialed up by a thousand into the superpower realm - and each with some kind of downside. They work for the government to identify other Alphas and stop rogue ones, including a terrorist group. The ensemble cast includes Nina Theroux (played by Laura Mennell), a woman with a troubled past and the ability to override willpower, and Rachel Pirzad (played by Azita Ghanizada), an Iranian immigrant with the ability to intensify any one sense at the cost of the others.
Requested characters: Lee Rosen, Nina Theroux, Rachel Pirzad
Oh man, Alphas. I got hooked on it and watched all 24 episodes in six days. I fell in love with Rachel from her very first scene, and by the third episode I loved Nina just as much or more. Dr. Rosen grew on me over the course of the show, and I really love his character too! But honestly, there's not a main character in Alphas that I don't like, and that's unusual for me! They're just really great. Plus the show doesn't hesitate to play hardball with government mistrust, character deaths, and intense scenes, and is possibly the best show I've seen in terms of how it balances characters and storylines. The only downside, imho, was the terrible cliffhanger Syfy ended it on! (What's with that, Syfy? It's a lousy way to treat fans! Give us a two-hour movie to wrap things up, at least!)
I liked Nina's relationship with Cam, but I also liked that it ended and moved on, and I'm ambivalent about whether they should get back together, as the S2 finale hinted at. I'm also ambivalent about Rachel's relationship with John, and felt it moved a bit fast in Life after Death. I like the tension the last two episodes brought, with the issue of loyalties. You could see the team slowly fracturing into two groups - Lee, Cam, and Nina on the side of "anything it takes", and Bill and Kat (and John, for that matter) on the side of "follow the rules", and Rachel torn in the middle. (Gary is really an independent in all of this.) If you write a fic set during or after those eps, I can't see her splitting away from Lee and Nina, but there would need to be some development of her character in figuring out where she wants to be.
Prompts by character and then possible combinations:
I'd be delighted with fic for any single character that I've requested as well as any possible combination thereof.
Lee Rosen
I'd love to see more of Rosen's history - how did he end up in charge of a team that didn't officially exist? Or show me missing scenes throughout the show, such as the evening just after he shot a gun for the first time, or the thought process that leads to his decision at the end of S1.
Nina Theroux
Nina's a fascinating character, and I liked her from the beginning but fell in love with her at the end of Anger Management, the way she reached out to Rachel. And when I got to When Push Comes to Shove, I wanted to hug her so badly. Her power has damaged her relationships with others in so many ways, so many times, and thinking about how having that power affects someone as they grow and mature, particularly with the family she had… you start to realize that emotionally Rachel is far more stable in so many ways. I would love to see some of Nina's years after she lost Tommy as a friend, or more from when Rosen first encountered her. Or show me missing scenes during the show. Nina might not know the medical things that Rachel does, but she does know the basics of injections, as evidenced when Rosen tells her to give so many CCs to each person under Jonas' influence. Show me how she learns that!
Rachel Pirzad
When I saw Rachel tear up at her dad's words in the pilot, my heart went out to her immediately. I love her vulnerability, her slow progress towards finding her confidence and coming into her own. I'd love to see anything from her years at Langley (where I presume she was just keeping her senses balanced and steering clear of people) to something from the time when she's asked to work with Rosen on his team - that last has to be recent, given her canonical age of 24 in the pilot. Or show me Rachel in missing scenes throughout the show. The writers did get her backstory a little confused—they have a reference to Sam being her "first date" in S1, but in S2 she says she got drunk to sleep with a boyfriend, so pick whichever backstory you like better! One thing we see is that Rachel has a lot of interesting knowledge and skills, from being able to identify "an enzyme found only in Caucasians of Northern European ancestry" in the pilot to knowing how to give shots and recognize drug names (from the pilot Rosen has her prepare injections, and in Need to Know she knows right off that aminorex is a stimulant, something the average person wouldn't know). I'd love to see a fic that goes into how she learns all this.
Lee Rosen & Nina Theroux
I love the relationship these two have. Nina seems to be just about the only team member who calls him Lee, and she treats him as an equal in many ways. At the same time, she defers to him and follows him, especially after When Push Comes to Shove. (I've watched that final scene so many times, it's ridiculous.) Her feelings at being asked to use her pushing ability in Gaslight seem very conflicted, but she seems to recognize the need for it, and switches from "push mostly for my own gain" to "push only as Rosen needs me to". (The deleted scenes in Alphaville are very painful, though, when we see her realize she really is addicted to pushing, and Rosen prioritizes finding Parish over helping her with that. You'll notice she basically steers clear of romantic relationships for the rest of the season, with the exception of the one kiss in God's Eye - I don't think she trusts herself to not damage them, and I think she would eventually realize she shouldn't start things back up with Cam then either.) And later in The Devil Will Drag You Under, she's near tears when she realizes how much responsibility he's taking on himself in the ways he uses his team, for their well-being.
Nina's always the one concerned about Rosen's own well-being, whether it's telling him he needs to get an injury seen to, or being worried about him (did you catch her tone of voice—and later, her face—in Need to Know when she asks Cam, "Why don't you have Lee?"). Before When Push Comes to Shove, Nina acted very suave, polished, and independent, relying on her connections to the other members of the team and her pushing ability to fill the void in her life; after the events of that episode, she cannot use her pushing to compensate as she realizes the damage it has done to everyone, so she clings all the more to the human connections she has. Those being shaky at first with all but Lee, she grows very emotionally dependent on him, I think, and is very attuned to him. He probably has her loyalty more than anyone; Cam follows him at the end of S2 because they have a shared goal, Rachel follows to a point because she's Rosen's protegé, but Nina follows him because of what he means to her, and would follow him anywhere, I think. You'll notice in Need to Know, when Nina's exhausted, he orders Rachel to get the aminorex, and there's really no time for him to have any discussion about it with Nina; he had to have simply said "I'm going to give you this" and she accepted his judgment. So much trust…
I'd love to see anything from their first meeting, to early therapy sessions (Nina does say she was a mess when she first met Rosen and that he helped her a lot), to interactions between them as the team is being formed. Maybe the scene just after the last bit of convo we hear in When Push Comes to Shove? Or moments during the latter arc - such as discussion about using her pushing during Gaslight or beyond, or plotting the events in Need to Know. I see their relationship as platonic, but I've read at least one fic I liked that took it to a romantic dimension, so you could sell me on that. They're both two souls without much of a family and I'd love to see them lean on each other more.
Lee Rosen & Rachel Pirzad
The relationship between these two is really complex. On one hand, Rachel seems to really look up to Dr. Rosen and rely on him to a degree (such as in Wake Up Call when he's probably the only one who could get her to leave her room), but in Never Let Me Go she said sometimes she thought all he cared about was her Alpha ability. I presume she's realized how much he cares for her since, especially when he told her that she was like a daughter to him and that he cared about her more than she would ever know. (And she clearly cares about him, as you see in God's Eye where she tells John she won't leave Rosen, even after he goes beyond where she's comfortable with in Need to Know.) Though did you notice that he held back from reassuring her at the end of the episode, preferring instead to remind her of her own strength? I think he's got some issues with being vulnerable (doing it at that one point only so she would survive) - and she's naturally a very vulnerable person. It makes an interesting combination.
I'd love to see anything from their first meeting, to Dr. Rosen helping Rachel past her sensory overload, to an AU ending to Never Let Me Go where he does make himself vulnerable by declaring his affection for her. Or show me S2 Rachel - there's not nearly as many interactions between them but I'd love to see more. How did he convince her to be a part of the kidnap/interrogation plot in Need to Know? Or show a post-finale scene between them (they both have to have lived!) where they discuss her loyalty issues.
Rachel Pirzad & Nina Theroux
The relationship between these two changes so much over the course of the show. S1 Nina is very caring despite doing a good job of pretending to be all cool and not revealing much of her past, and I love the scene at the end of Anger Management where she reaches out to Rachel. She's always offering Rachel a ride, listening to her, encouraging her in her difficulties with her parents, etc. And then you have S2, where she pushes Rachel to stay calm in Wake Up Call - and then pushes for an entirely different reason in When Push Comes to Shove. It was painful to see their relationship in Gaslight, and lovely to see Rachel thawing towards Nina as she recognizes Nina's changed (and that Nina is taking responsibility for the results of her pushing). There are some very interesting undercurrents in Need to Know, though - from Nina's "You called them?" to the way Nina says "When Rachel…" to the looks Nina gives Rachel in the elevator and afterwards, and there wasn't time to really deal with that in the few hours that the last two episodes cover. Though I like that when Kat is trying to get a hold of Rachel, Bill says "Nina always knows where she is". I think Nina really cares for Rachel down deep. I'm not entirely sure what Nina's reasoning was for what she pushed Rachel to do in the club in When Push Comes to Shove (was she trying to find the quickest way to hurt Rachel, to force the rejection she was feeling coming anyway? or was there more to it?), but when she's in her right mind, she clearly has a lot of affection for Rachel.
I'd love to see anything from their first meeting to Rachel moving in with Nina, to bonding while roommates, to even Rachel moving back out to her parents' (when did that happen? right after Rosen's speech or further into the eight months?). Or show me some of the rebuilding of their friendship in S2, or even an AU where Rachel tracks Nina down at the end of The Quick and the Dead and gets through to her. Or show me some of the aftermath of the events of Need to Know or post-finale discussion of things. I just love these two and want to see more of them. Still so mad the show ended too soon!
All three
And of course, I would love ensemble fic with all three of them. Maybe the other guys are away on another case and it's down to Rosen and the two women to crack something? Or maybe we're focusing on each of them in turn during some plot. Or write a post-S2 finale fic that follows the trajectories of their stories. I love all three of these characters so much and would adore anything about any of them.
Where to find canon: The US Amazon has Season 1 and Season 2 separately for just over $16 combined (strangely enough they try to sell a bundle of the two for $21, as if you're going to save that way!). You may be able to find it on your local Amazon or even the local library, but you won't find this on Netflix, alas!
Happy writing! :D
I love characters who are strong as well as characters who are vulnerable, I love characters who have quiet depth, characters with an active inner life, characters who think and feel… You'll probably see this in the characters I requested. :)
I once made up a 101 favorite tropes list (in no particular order), so feel free to make use of those if any of them get your muse going: http://doranwen.livejournal.com/246063.html
Besides those tropes, here are my general likes:
deep platonic friendship, romantic friendship, asexual romance, found families, apocalyptic fic, hurt/comfort, nonsexual physical touch (including cuddling), self-sacrifice, characters being vulnerable, character redemption, survival fic, positive treatment of religion, characters dealing with trauma, trust building, missing scenes, canon divergence AU (especially fix-it fic)
DNWs: sex or sexual feelings, supernatural/fantasy beings (elves, vampires, werewolves, gnomes, zombies, etc.), AUs other than canon divergence or alt beginnings, deathfic or horror, calling an adult "baby" or "darling", mpreg, crackfic, gore (mild violence is OK, just not as graphic as a surgery documentary), uncensored profanity, first/second person fic
If you're crossover-inclined, here's a list of fandoms you could cross with the requested ones (besides, of course, any of my other requests):
1-800-Missing (TV) - love Jess, Brooke, and Sunny so much
C-16: FBI - Amanda and Annie are both fantastic, and Amanda's relationship with Jack is interesting
Flood (2007) - love Sam and Rob, and Patricia and Leonard, and I might be slightly shippy with those two pairs…
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman - this is in the tagset, even—Lois and Clark are my favs, though I also enjoy S1 Jimmy (I always picture him in stories I read, rather than the actor from S2+)
Lord of the Rings - books only, please
The Pretender - this is also in the tagset—Jarod and Miss Parker are my favs
Push (2009) - this is also in the tagset—am such a Nick/Cassie fan
Rizzoli & Isles (TV) - Jane and Maura are fantastic
Smallville - S1-S3 only, am a Clark/Chloe fan and not into Erica Durance's Lois, nor any of the magic stuff that came in S4
Stick It (2006) - I love Haley, lol
Sue Thomas F.B.Eye - Myles and Tara are my favs, but I love Sue and Jack too
Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010) - I'm not sure exactly how you'd cross something like that with any of my requests, but I love the whole idea of it, even
Women's Murder Club (TV) - this is also in the tagset—Lindsay and Cindy are my favs but I also like Claire a lot
X-Men movieverse - original two films only, please
You can find specific crossover-only prompts here if that interests you.
Don't worry if someone's written a similar idea before. My first real fandom was one where people used to write a dozen versions of the same TV ep, and I loved reading them all. There are never too many versions of the same story, in my opinion.
And now to the requests (in the order they appear in the tagset):
Worldweavers - Alma Alexander
Basic premise: Galathea Winthrop (aka Thea) is a Double Seventh, a seventh child of seventh children. This should mean she's good at something really special, right? Except she can't do magic at all. And Ars Magica is part of the curriculum of every school in the entire nation—except for one: the Wandless Academy (which is sometimes called the Last Ditch School for the Incurably Incompetent). But between a summer school (with a class of one) like no other, and various unusual events, Thea begins to discover the gifts she has never known she had. Oh, and save the world in the process.
I didn't nominate/request any characters because I'd like to leave things open for worldbuilding. The sheer idea of a world where Ars Magica is part of the entire school curriculum—really, where magic is so woven into the way things happen that coffeeshops use spells to keep people's orders straight, you can buy a spell to keep gardens tidy, and a magic allergy is extremely life-threatening. Oh, and throw in the feral libraries, with elevators that act like four-year-olds! I fell in love with the world with that part. Just pure awesomeness! I also enjoy that part of it is set in my region of the US (the Pacific Northwest). I also love Thea's story, so if you're feeling more of a character-driven story, I'd love fic about her! For this fandom I'd love OCs, especially since I'm more interested in the way things work than in the specific characters' stories (other than Thea).
I like how Thea's friends grow over time, and you can totally throw them in, but I'd prefer that the fic not focus on them. I'm less interested in the Anasazi, Grandmother Spider/Tawaha/the Trickster, Tesla and all of that; feel free to leave them out. The Alphiri and Faele are not my thing, and we know little of the Dwarrowrim, so I'd prefer if the fic not focus on those polities, as they're called in the books.
Prompts:
I'd love something about the education system, from a child starting their first Ars Magica classes to the creation of the Wandless Academy. I'm a math teacher, and the mention of mathemagic, spell-solving of equations, and fractionators had me wishing I could see more of those. Or write something about magic run amok, like feral libraries, or magic as used in crimes and criminal justice, etc. Or explore some of the other types of magic (the ones mentioned in the list of all the things they tried in order to find Thea's magic). Or maybe something with society setup, like the Federal Bureau of Magic, or how it's integrated into the everyday lives of people (note the bit in the first book about people not using cars much due to portals, slipways, transfigurations . . .), even as regards to having magic allergies (the medical profession would be interesting!) Use whatever you know well. I'm not into sports (the only possible exception is Olympic gymnastics or ice skating which I watched back in the '90s, mainly) or fashion, but I'll find just about any other industry fascinating; I like complex systems and how they work (hence my fascination with air traffic control and airports in general). The world of Worldweavers feels familiar but there are so many interesting changes!
If you find yourself inspired by Thea, I'd love something set after Dawn of Magic, where she settles into her full power, finishes at Amford, etc. Does she create anything really special in her life? Like the Elemental houses, for instance. Something that no one else could do.
Where to find canon: Amazon is the place to get these. On the US side, they're only $3-$5 for the e-books. You can find links to all four here for the US Amazon, or look at your local Amazon.
Gold Diggers (1995)
Basic premise: Also known as Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain (1995), the film tells the story of two girls who become close friends and essentially save each other's lives. There's also a plotline involving gold (naturally, given the name), but the story is essentially a story of friendship.
Oh, fandom of my childhood. I LOVED this movie to death. So much so that I spent hours imagining what I now know to be called fanfic, whereupon I changed Beth and Jody's name to Sara and Ricki, and made their family lives nasty enough so they would run away to live in Bear Mountain for the rest of their lives and adopt runaway orphan kids and … yeah. I kid you not. I thought the whole "best friends run away and live together forever happily ever after" was the perfect ending EVER when I was 13, lol.
The thing that captivated me about the movie was most particularly the friendship between the two of them. Beth is fascinated by Jody from the get-go (she goes from confused by just seeing her fight with a kid, to mad with running into her with the groceries—and yet she still heads off with her after the Winnie the Pooh discussion), her toughness that hides an underlying vulnerability and hurt. And Jody appreciates Beth as someone who actually listens to her, who is loyal and supportive. (I think I saw myself some in Beth, and longed for something like what they had.)
I also loved the survivalist theme of Jody wanting to live in Bear Mountain. A lot of my "mindfic" from my childhood days centered around some character surviving by a combination of scavenging (which included raiding "civilization" for anything useful, sometimes by less than legal means), farming/hunting, etc. I wasn't always very realistic about it (since I didn't know much about survival as a 12-year-old), but I loved the idea of it.
I nominated and requested both Beth and Jody because to me, this is the core of the film. :) Really, they are the heart of it all. I'd love anything from their friendship during the rest of the summer after the events in the film, or at school the following year; they're local celebrities now, but they're not going to let that get to their heads. What's popularity compared to a friendship you can count on? I'm good with turning it into a romantic friendship, too. I just love the bond these two have! I can see them talking about their dads, about what they'll do when they're grown up, going on more adventures at Bear Mountain… Feel free to AU things too, if you like the idea of them running away for whatever reason, or if Jody had actually killed Ray, or if Ray did worse things besides beat up Lynette. (I'm quite OK with some dark themes here as long as the girls end up together and have each other.) Or what if Beth didn't crash the boat and Jody was living in Bear Mountain by herself? (whether Ray lived or not) So many ways to focus on these two girls, and I would have so much love for whatever you write. :D
Where to find canon: You can find the DVD transfer at the US Amazon or try searching your local Amazon. It may be findable other places as well.
Alphas (TV)
Basic premise: This show has been called "X-Men for thinking people", and is a deconstruction of humans with superpowers. (The tagline is "Their abilities make them super. Their actions make them human.") Dr. Lee Rosen (played by David Strathairn) is a therapist who manages a team of Alphas, people who have abilities anyone else might - except dialed up by a thousand into the superpower realm - and each with some kind of downside. They work for the government to identify other Alphas and stop rogue ones, including a terrorist group. The ensemble cast includes Nina Theroux (played by Laura Mennell), a woman with a troubled past and the ability to override willpower, and Rachel Pirzad (played by Azita Ghanizada), an Iranian immigrant with the ability to intensify any one sense at the cost of the others.
Requested characters: Lee Rosen, Nina Theroux, Rachel Pirzad
Oh man, Alphas. I got hooked on it and watched all 24 episodes in six days. I fell in love with Rachel from her very first scene, and by the third episode I loved Nina just as much or more. Dr. Rosen grew on me over the course of the show, and I really love his character too! But honestly, there's not a main character in Alphas that I don't like, and that's unusual for me! They're just really great. Plus the show doesn't hesitate to play hardball with government mistrust, character deaths, and intense scenes, and is possibly the best show I've seen in terms of how it balances characters and storylines. The only downside, imho, was the terrible cliffhanger Syfy ended it on! (What's with that, Syfy? It's a lousy way to treat fans! Give us a two-hour movie to wrap things up, at least!)
I liked Nina's relationship with Cam, but I also liked that it ended and moved on, and I'm ambivalent about whether they should get back together, as the S2 finale hinted at. I'm also ambivalent about Rachel's relationship with John, and felt it moved a bit fast in Life after Death. I like the tension the last two episodes brought, with the issue of loyalties. You could see the team slowly fracturing into two groups - Lee, Cam, and Nina on the side of "anything it takes", and Bill and Kat (and John, for that matter) on the side of "follow the rules", and Rachel torn in the middle. (Gary is really an independent in all of this.) If you write a fic set during or after those eps, I can't see her splitting away from Lee and Nina, but there would need to be some development of her character in figuring out where she wants to be.
Prompts by character and then possible combinations:
I'd be delighted with fic for any single character that I've requested as well as any possible combination thereof.
Lee Rosen
I'd love to see more of Rosen's history - how did he end up in charge of a team that didn't officially exist? Or show me missing scenes throughout the show, such as the evening just after he shot a gun for the first time, or the thought process that leads to his decision at the end of S1.
Nina Theroux
Nina's a fascinating character, and I liked her from the beginning but fell in love with her at the end of Anger Management, the way she reached out to Rachel. And when I got to When Push Comes to Shove, I wanted to hug her so badly. Her power has damaged her relationships with others in so many ways, so many times, and thinking about how having that power affects someone as they grow and mature, particularly with the family she had… you start to realize that emotionally Rachel is far more stable in so many ways. I would love to see some of Nina's years after she lost Tommy as a friend, or more from when Rosen first encountered her. Or show me missing scenes during the show. Nina might not know the medical things that Rachel does, but she does know the basics of injections, as evidenced when Rosen tells her to give so many CCs to each person under Jonas' influence. Show me how she learns that!
Rachel Pirzad
When I saw Rachel tear up at her dad's words in the pilot, my heart went out to her immediately. I love her vulnerability, her slow progress towards finding her confidence and coming into her own. I'd love to see anything from her years at Langley (where I presume she was just keeping her senses balanced and steering clear of people) to something from the time when she's asked to work with Rosen on his team - that last has to be recent, given her canonical age of 24 in the pilot. Or show me Rachel in missing scenes throughout the show. The writers did get her backstory a little confused—they have a reference to Sam being her "first date" in S1, but in S2 she says she got drunk to sleep with a boyfriend, so pick whichever backstory you like better! One thing we see is that Rachel has a lot of interesting knowledge and skills, from being able to identify "an enzyme found only in Caucasians of Northern European ancestry" in the pilot to knowing how to give shots and recognize drug names (from the pilot Rosen has her prepare injections, and in Need to Know she knows right off that aminorex is a stimulant, something the average person wouldn't know). I'd love to see a fic that goes into how she learns all this.
Lee Rosen & Nina Theroux
I love the relationship these two have. Nina seems to be just about the only team member who calls him Lee, and she treats him as an equal in many ways. At the same time, she defers to him and follows him, especially after When Push Comes to Shove. (I've watched that final scene so many times, it's ridiculous.) Her feelings at being asked to use her pushing ability in Gaslight seem very conflicted, but she seems to recognize the need for it, and switches from "push mostly for my own gain" to "push only as Rosen needs me to". (The deleted scenes in Alphaville are very painful, though, when we see her realize she really is addicted to pushing, and Rosen prioritizes finding Parish over helping her with that. You'll notice she basically steers clear of romantic relationships for the rest of the season, with the exception of the one kiss in God's Eye - I don't think she trusts herself to not damage them, and I think she would eventually realize she shouldn't start things back up with Cam then either.) And later in The Devil Will Drag You Under, she's near tears when she realizes how much responsibility he's taking on himself in the ways he uses his team, for their well-being.
Nina's always the one concerned about Rosen's own well-being, whether it's telling him he needs to get an injury seen to, or being worried about him (did you catch her tone of voice—and later, her face—in Need to Know when she asks Cam, "Why don't you have Lee?"). Before When Push Comes to Shove, Nina acted very suave, polished, and independent, relying on her connections to the other members of the team and her pushing ability to fill the void in her life; after the events of that episode, she cannot use her pushing to compensate as she realizes the damage it has done to everyone, so she clings all the more to the human connections she has. Those being shaky at first with all but Lee, she grows very emotionally dependent on him, I think, and is very attuned to him. He probably has her loyalty more than anyone; Cam follows him at the end of S2 because they have a shared goal, Rachel follows to a point because she's Rosen's protegé, but Nina follows him because of what he means to her, and would follow him anywhere, I think. You'll notice in Need to Know, when Nina's exhausted, he orders Rachel to get the aminorex, and there's really no time for him to have any discussion about it with Nina; he had to have simply said "I'm going to give you this" and she accepted his judgment. So much trust…
I'd love to see anything from their first meeting, to early therapy sessions (Nina does say she was a mess when she first met Rosen and that he helped her a lot), to interactions between them as the team is being formed. Maybe the scene just after the last bit of convo we hear in When Push Comes to Shove? Or moments during the latter arc - such as discussion about using her pushing during Gaslight or beyond, or plotting the events in Need to Know. I see their relationship as platonic, but I've read at least one fic I liked that took it to a romantic dimension, so you could sell me on that. They're both two souls without much of a family and I'd love to see them lean on each other more.
Lee Rosen & Rachel Pirzad
The relationship between these two is really complex. On one hand, Rachel seems to really look up to Dr. Rosen and rely on him to a degree (such as in Wake Up Call when he's probably the only one who could get her to leave her room), but in Never Let Me Go she said sometimes she thought all he cared about was her Alpha ability. I presume she's realized how much he cares for her since, especially when he told her that she was like a daughter to him and that he cared about her more than she would ever know. (And she clearly cares about him, as you see in God's Eye where she tells John she won't leave Rosen, even after he goes beyond where she's comfortable with in Need to Know.) Though did you notice that he held back from reassuring her at the end of the episode, preferring instead to remind her of her own strength? I think he's got some issues with being vulnerable (doing it at that one point only so she would survive) - and she's naturally a very vulnerable person. It makes an interesting combination.
I'd love to see anything from their first meeting, to Dr. Rosen helping Rachel past her sensory overload, to an AU ending to Never Let Me Go where he does make himself vulnerable by declaring his affection for her. Or show me S2 Rachel - there's not nearly as many interactions between them but I'd love to see more. How did he convince her to be a part of the kidnap/interrogation plot in Need to Know? Or show a post-finale scene between them (they both have to have lived!) where they discuss her loyalty issues.
Rachel Pirzad & Nina Theroux
The relationship between these two changes so much over the course of the show. S1 Nina is very caring despite doing a good job of pretending to be all cool and not revealing much of her past, and I love the scene at the end of Anger Management where she reaches out to Rachel. She's always offering Rachel a ride, listening to her, encouraging her in her difficulties with her parents, etc. And then you have S2, where she pushes Rachel to stay calm in Wake Up Call - and then pushes for an entirely different reason in When Push Comes to Shove. It was painful to see their relationship in Gaslight, and lovely to see Rachel thawing towards Nina as she recognizes Nina's changed (and that Nina is taking responsibility for the results of her pushing). There are some very interesting undercurrents in Need to Know, though - from Nina's "You called them?" to the way Nina says "When Rachel…" to the looks Nina gives Rachel in the elevator and afterwards, and there wasn't time to really deal with that in the few hours that the last two episodes cover. Though I like that when Kat is trying to get a hold of Rachel, Bill says "Nina always knows where she is". I think Nina really cares for Rachel down deep. I'm not entirely sure what Nina's reasoning was for what she pushed Rachel to do in the club in When Push Comes to Shove (was she trying to find the quickest way to hurt Rachel, to force the rejection she was feeling coming anyway? or was there more to it?), but when she's in her right mind, she clearly has a lot of affection for Rachel.
I'd love to see anything from their first meeting to Rachel moving in with Nina, to bonding while roommates, to even Rachel moving back out to her parents' (when did that happen? right after Rosen's speech or further into the eight months?). Or show me some of the rebuilding of their friendship in S2, or even an AU where Rachel tracks Nina down at the end of The Quick and the Dead and gets through to her. Or show me some of the aftermath of the events of Need to Know or post-finale discussion of things. I just love these two and want to see more of them. Still so mad the show ended too soon!
All three
And of course, I would love ensemble fic with all three of them. Maybe the other guys are away on another case and it's down to Rosen and the two women to crack something? Or maybe we're focusing on each of them in turn during some plot. Or write a post-S2 finale fic that follows the trajectories of their stories. I love all three of these characters so much and would adore anything about any of them.
Where to find canon: The US Amazon has Season 1 and Season 2 separately for just over $16 combined (strangely enough they try to sell a bundle of the two for $21, as if you're going to save that way!). You may be able to find it on your local Amazon or even the local library, but you won't find this on Netflix, alas!
Happy writing! :D
