Dear Chocolatier Letter 2020
Jan. 6th, 2020 08:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
doranwenI love doing Chocolate Box every year. :D Below I've done a lot of describing the awesomeness about each pairing, and gave a few prompts in case you find them useful. I hope you have a lot of fun writing for me. :)
What I love about relationships is all the emotional depth: vulnerability, loyalty, knowing someone so well you know what they feel/think/need, even just having someone there as an emotional "rock". The whole "not being alone" feeling is such a powerful theme.
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: https://doranwen.dreamwidth.org/240453.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: supernatural/fantasy beings (elves outside of LOTR, vampires, werewolves, gnomes, zombies, etc.), AUs other than canon divergence or alt beginnings, noncanonical 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
DNW/Caution note: I'm not averse to mentions of sex, but I'd prefer the fic not focus on it or indulge in the physical feelings. Emotional feelings/bonds are what I focus on in any ship. If a prompt requires a mention or implies sex in some way, feel free to include it as necessary as long as the focus of the fic is elsewhere.
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 tagset category order):
The Matrix (Movies)
X-Men (Original Timeline Movies)
Crossover Fandom
Cybergeddon (Web Series)
Alphas (TV)
Rookie Blue
Women's Murder Club (TV)
The Matrix (Movies)
I'm not going into the basic premise here because if you don't already know it, I'm not going to spoil you! Just watch the films if you haven't already. ;)
I watched them back around the late 2000s, but after reading a small selection of fics at the time, I drifted away to other fandoms and forgot about it until I got to The Matrix when entering fics in my fic database. Rewatching them has reanimated my love for this fandom, and I think I love Neo/Trinity even more than I did before.
While I love the first film almost wholeheartedly (you'll see prompts that would involve changing some things), I have a complicated relationship with the sequels. There are scenes I love (the freeway chase, some of the Neo/Trinity ones), but the ending for Neo and Trinity is so sad that half the time I pretend the sequels never existed (and I never liked that The One was just a control measure by the machines). I'm happy with you doing the same if you want - but as long as both Neo and Trinity are alive (and together) by the end of the fic, I'm OK with you setting it whenever.
Trinity is the key, to me. She's the character I absolutely adore, and she's vitally important to the whole story. Without her, Neo would not be the One, and without her, everything falls apart. However, some of my prompts would require POVs other than hers and I love outsider POV; as long as she's focused on in the fic in some way, I'll be happy. (I'm also good with a fic where Neo doesn't appear as long as the focus is on their relationship somehow.)
As far as my DNW about sex goes, I don't mind if you refer to these two doing it, just close the door on them, please? Kissing is fine, just focus on the emotions over the physical.
Prompts by tag:
Thomas Anderson | Neo/Trinity
I'd love to see both of them survive at the end of the third film somehow, or maybe an AU of the first film where they're somehow able to save one or more of the crew members who die. (Or maybe they just figure out what Cypher was up to and stop him before he kills half the crew?)
I also love these two together, so if you want to write them developing a relationship (there's a big jump between "we kiss for the first time" and "we're madly in love and together"), or just feeling things out post-film 1, that would be awesome.
If you want to write some angst before getting to the waffy ending, I read a WIP once that pointed out that Trinity was told she would love Neo, but not that he'd love her back. What if there's some doubt? What if he didn't hear her say she loved him and she didn't kiss him right away? How would they sort that all out?
I love hurt/comfort, and there's plenty of possibilities there for these two, either emotional or physical.
If you want to play around with outsider POV, I'd love to see everyone observing how much Neo/Trinity are in love with each other before they realize it/admit it, or even one of them talking to her about it. Would especially be awesome to see an AU where Apoc and Switch survive to give their commentary on the relationship they saw coming a mile away.
And if you're into soulbonds, I could totally see this with these two. (And how would that work with the Matrix? All the awesome worldbuilding here.)
I got an amazing fic for these two for Multifandom Tropefest but I love the fandom so much that I'd love to see more!
X-Men (Original Timeline Movies)
Basic premise (in the rare possibility that whoever's reading this actually doesn't know anything about this canon and is curious): Humans have evolved to where some are born with an extra gene, called the X gene, which gives them mutant powers (mostly at adolescence, but some are visibly different at birth). Some use them for good and some for evil, and fear of the latter causes a lot of prejudice against them. One very talented telepath, Professor Xavier, gathers powerful mutants as students, who later become teachers at his own boarding school. Two of his teachers are Scott Summers aka Cyclops (played by James Marsden) and Ororo Munroe aka Storm (played by Halle Berry). During the course of the films, they rescue mutants and fight multiple villains.
Ahh, X-Men. :D I should note first off that my introduction to X-Men was through the films - the first three only - and I've not experienced any other canon besides them (unless you count poking on Wikipedia for comics info I could borrow for fic as I felt like). I wasn't too keen on what I'd heard about Wolverine when it was being made, so I never ended up watching it, or First Class, or any of the others, just X1, X2, and X3. X1 and X2 I love wholeheartedly, whether you AU them all over the place, or keep the plot as it is. The characters, the issues, there's a lot going on and it's just fantastic! X3, on the other hand… I like parts of it (Jimmy's power, the Cure plot, introducing Angel) but other parts of it I was very dismayed at (what they did to Scott and Professor X) or not fond of (the Phoenix plot, Rogue taking the Cure, even Ororo's haircut). So X3 is a mixed bag for me. I can enjoy a fic set in it, but given the ship I'm requesting (which involves Scott), I think you might find X3 a challenge to write! :)
I love the big issues the canon raises, such as the question of how much liberty we trade for security, and the ways people fear differences. The parallels to the Holocaust are particularly interesting to me, as the villain Magneto reacts to his experiences by promoting superiority of mutants over humans out of fear that it will happen again. Is his fear valid? Absolutely, which makes him a more sympathetic villain - yet that fear does not justify the means he uses, nor the results he would achieve (subjugating humans would only breed resentment toward mutants, which would make a genocide more likely should they ever be free of that yoke). Each character has to decide where they stand on the subject of mutant-human relations, and how they will demonstrate their views by their actions, and that makes them all the more fascinating.
I also love the personal issues raised by individual characters' stories. My favorite character (though I love quite a few of them!) is Scott. Sadly, the films don't give us nearly enough detail on his life or what brought him to be who he is. You're welcome to use whatever backstory you like, as long as it doesn't involve the aliens as in comics canon. (I like my X-Men realistic other than for the powers, lol.) What we do see (from my perspective) is a guy who has to get things right, not in order to dominate, but in order to satisfy his own standards. He has high expectations for himself, whether because he feels a sense of gratitude/obligation to Professor X, or just because he isn't satisfied with less than excellence. There's possibly some insecurity there, too. From the age difference between his actor and Jean's, I tend to headcanon that Jean is older than Scott by several years. What we see of their relationship in the film could be solid, but I've often seen some potential for issues and a breakup, hence the ships I've requested both here and in other exchanges (none of which are Scott/Jean).
One of my other favorite characters is, obviously, Ororo. She provides an excellent chance to give a different cultural perspective, and I like the comic-derived possibility of her being claustrophobic. While I did not request Professor X, I also really love his character too, as the wise leader who might or might not do a little too much manipulation of things. Since I've not seen any other films besides the first three, you've got a lot of leeway for what you write for the school's history as well as that of some of the characters.
As for other characters: I generally like all the students that are shown to be at the school (for instance, the physics class clearly has Dani and Jubilee in addition to Bobby, Kitty, and John), and I like the X-Men a lot. I'd prefer not to see the villains glamorized or justified; while I can understand their motivations, it doesn't make their actions any more valid (the ends do not justify the means). I headcanon Professor X as likely asexual (but you could sell me on a relationship in the past, perhaps with Moira - since I've not seen more than X1-X3, you're welcome to write her however you like if you include her). I never did see him and Erik as partners in a romantic/sexual sense. The only comics characters that I've run across in fics that I've read and know for sure I would rather not see in my gift are Gambit and any of the characters from the Hellfire Club.
Prompts:
Scott and Ororo are the rarest of all my rarepairs, I think (there are so few fics that focus on these two!); Ororo/Scott was not a ship I would have thought of till I read a couple really good fics years ago that paired them, and then I wondered why I hadn't seen those possibilities earlier. I'd love to see them navigating past the ghost of Jean in the relationship; even if it's set in an AU where Jean lives through X2 or where they break up before X2 ever happens, I'd imagine that Scott would have to adjust to not being in a relationship with Jean anymore, and given the number of years they must have been together, that's not going to be an instantaneous process. If you want to write X3, maybe you can find a way to keep Prof X from dying and bring Scott back? Or write an X3 where Jean is never found, and the Cure plot plays out without Magneto having her as a weapon. You'd probably have to do some tweaking of canon for X3, seeing as how Scott doesn't live very long in X3 and I really hate the thought of his death so would rather not read foreshadowing. It's so tragic! *sobs* But anyway, you'd think that Scott and Ororo would have had a lot of bonding they could do with each other, especially depending on the backstories you give them.
Crossover Fandom
I've seen wilder crossover ideas, but some of these are a little tricky. To write most of them will take great amounts of AU-ing. The one generality I can say is that I like crossovers to be taken somewhat seriously; I'd prefer not to receive crackfic. But I'm perfectly OK with "I don't know how I got here" sorts of situations, where one person is suddenly dropped into another world (whether they woke up there, or walked through a weird spot in the air, etc.). You'll have to use some of that to get some of these characters in the same place! For crossovers with LOTR characters, while I love fics that recognize that Westron is not actually English (and Frodo is actually Maura, etc.), I'm also OK with characters being dropped into the world able to speak it as if it were English. Perhaps whatever magic dropped them there made it so that Westron would always sound like English to them?
Also note that for the X-Men characters, I've only seen X1, X2, and X3, and I'm not particularly tied to X3 being canon. You're free to make up any details that weren't in the first two films.
Prompts by tag:
Andy McNally (Rookie Blue) & Maggie Bell (FBI TV 2018)
The same actress plays both characters, which leaves all kinds of room for interesting crossover-ness. I can't usually buy "twins separated at birth" storylines, but mistaken identities are so much fun to play with, and both characters are great law enforcement agents in their own right. How do they meet?
Cassie Holmes (Push) & Jean Grey (X-Men Original Movieverse)
I mostly wanted to see Cassie with Jean because their perspectives are so radically different. Jean's used to dealing with runaways, scared teens who don't know how to control the powers they have. Cassie, on the other hand, is more of a soldier. A very young one, but a soldier, nonetheless. She's self-controlled in a way few of the teens Jean would know could ever be. Perhaps Cassie ends up staying at the X-Mansion to hide from Division, and that's how they meet. Either way, I'd love to see either one from the other's perspective. Cassie interacts on such an adult level and would not fit in with the other teens, I don't think. As far as the timeline goes, in order to include Jean, you can either set this sometime before the end of X2 or AU it so Jean makes it. (Would prefer that X3 never happened…)
Chloe Sullivan (Smallville) & Cassie Holmes (Push)
I've not seen Smallville past season 3, really, but early years is where I see these two meeting up, when they'd be similar ages. Both are blonde, tough, city kids. Cassie might be younger, but she's even tougher - how many years has she been on her own, with her mom locked up by Division? And Chloe's all about discovering and exposing things like that. Whether they team up, whether they get into arguments because Cassie won't tell Chloe what's going on, whether it's just one of them observing the other and noting what they're like… I'm sure it won't be dull! I could see it as set either before the events of Push (wherein I'd wonder if Chloe helps Cassie get to Hong Kong somehow?) or afterward, with Nick and Cassie traveling together.
Gail Peck (Rookie Blue) & Miss Parker (The Pretender)
These two together would be a RIOT. I don't know whether they'd get along fabulously or whether the overload of sarcasm in one room would result in some kind of explosion or what. I haven't the faintest idea of how to get them together, so I hope you've got a great imagination. :D
Galathea Winthrop (Worldweavers) & Katherine Pryde (X-Men Original Timeline)
Both of these girls are talented with computers - but they approach them in entirely different ways! I'd love to see them meet up and connect somehow. :D
Nina Theroux (Alphas) & Jean Grey (X-Men Original Movieverse)
These two are fairly evenly matched as far as powers go, I think. On one hand, Jean could take over Nina's mind and control her power, but on the other, if she weren't wary, Nina could do the same to her. I'd love to see what happens when they meet up!
Nina Theroux (Alphas) & Miss Parker (Pretender)
It would be extremely interesting to watch these two interact. Miss Parker's tough-as-nails exterior masks a vulnerable core, and Nina covers her own vulnerability with suave polish. Would they see through each other, would Nina push Miss Parker for some reason, would they team up in some way?
Cybergeddon (Web Series)
Basic premise: FBI Special Agent Chloe Jocelyn (played by Missy Peregrym) is framed for cybercrimes she didn't commit, and has to go on the run to prove her innocence and save the world. She breaks Chase "Rabbit" Rosen (played by Kick Gurry), a more-or-less white-hat hacker, out of prison to help her.
This is like a hacker version of The Fugitive (I'm told it's reminiscent of 24 as well). Missy Peregrym is amazing in this role with a great range - physical, emotional, etc. She sells her character so well and really makes you feel along with her. While I'm not crazy about the Norton ad aspects of the series (and I think they kind of forgot that Linux is a lot better protected than Windows in general), the rest of it is fantastic and well worth watching. You can see an awesome trailer for it here, or here or here if the first link is geo-blocked for you.
Prompts by tag:
Chloe Jocelyn & Rabbit Rosen (Cybergeddon)
I nominated only this tag because I don't really care much for Chloe's relationship with Frank - and I absolutely loved the ridiculous banter between her and Rabbit. His brand of flirting, with her eyerolling and sarcasm back, made for some great watching. I could see a romantic relationship between them years down the road, but I really just wanted to see more of the friendship that's there by the end of the film. (I got a fantastic treat for these two for Yuletide awhile back and it just whet my appetite for more, lol.)
Give me anything post-film with these two! I'd love to see some of the aftermath - go realistic with this if you want! - we see planes going down, we're told elevators fell all over the place… Show me Chloe's reaction to this, with Rabbit there providing his own brand of support. Or have them go after Gustov again and get him for good this time. Or have them deal with the legal issues - obviously they'll withdraw the charges from her with regards to hacking, but does she get in trouble for anything else? And Rabbit should technically be in jail, but you know they worked it out so he isn't - I'd love to see that process. Redo the end of the film, even! Since I'd rather not see her with Frank, maybe you want to redo the scenes in Washington, change up how all of that works, where Rabbit fits in. I love canon divergence AUs, so feel free to do all kinds of things with this. I'll love whatever you come up with!
You can find the DVD at the US Amazon. If you can't do Region 1, then try here for an edited-into-single-film version (I didn't do that one! but kudos to the person who did). If you can't do either of those, leave an anonymous comment and let me know which file hoster you need it at (and whether you want the original webisodes + soundtrack in two parts, or one file of the webisodes edited into a single film), and I'll try to get that uploaded right away. (I promise I won't assume that I'm getting this for my gift - I'd just like to get other people into this too!)
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.
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. 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 really don't want to see her split 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 tag:
Lee Rosen & Nina Theroux (Alphas)
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.
Rachel Pirzad & Nina Theroux (Alphas)
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!
Lee Rosen & Nina Theroux & Rachel Pirzad (Alphas)
I would love to see these three characters interacting somehow. How did Rosen convince Rachel to be a part of the kidnap/interrogation plot in Need to Know, and how did Nina play into that? Or 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. Or a conversation dealing with what happened in When Push Comes to Shove. I love all three of these characters so much and would adore anything about them. Feel free to come up with whatever strikes you!
Rookie Blue
Basic premise: Andy McNally (played by Missy Peregrym), Gail Peck (played by Charlotte Sullivan), and Dov Epstein (played by Gregory Smith) are rookie cops in Toronto. Sam Swarek (played by Ben Bass) is one of the senior officers who becomes Andy's TO and partner - in more ways than one. Also called the cop version of Grey's Anatomy - a procedural with heart.
This show is my biggest "why didn't you watch this sooner????" because the fandom is pretty much dead now, and I missed out on so much… I watched Stick It years ago and loved Missy Peregrym in that, but for some inexplicable reason waited until this past summer to watch Rookie Blue. I was hooked from the first couple episodes and watched all 74 in two weeks. :D All the drama, the emotion, the romance, the angst… (And SO MUCH AU POTENTIAL. Seriously. Feel free to AU this all over the place.)
Andy/Sam are an OTP for me, and I like Gail with either Dov or Luke (not into Gail/Chris, Gail/Nick, or Gail/Holly), hence requesting the tags I did. My favorite parts of canon are the first couple seasons, up to where the boys drop Gail like a hot potato and Sam goes undercover.
Prompts by tag:
Andy McNally/Sam Swarek (Rookie Blue)
These two are pretty much destined for each other from the start, and I will take just about ANYTHING. Trope it up as much as you want - I requested them for Multifandom Tropefest and had more than 20 tropes I'd love to see with them, some of them the tropiest tropes too. (Accidental marriage, amnesia, everyone thinks they're together, fake marriage, fight to survive, huddling for warmth, hurt/comfort, on the run together, secret relationship - forbidden/taboo, soulbonds, unplanned pregnancy…) Have them meet in an AU way, or diverge from canon. Or have Sam there for Andy in some spot we don't see it, such as finding her before she leaves the station in 2x06, or going with her to the hospital at the end of 2x04, or taking her home in 1x07… I'd prefer no future fic with this - set it somewhere in the canon, please! (Or before, if you want to have them meet in an alternate way.)
Dov Epstein/Gail Peck (Rookie Blue)
To make this happen, you'll have to AU things some, but I would love to see Dov choosing Gail over Chris and thawing her out a bit. Or trope it up with them too - there's so many that would be hilarious. Accidental marriage or fake marriage with those two would be sooooo funny. Or go serious, with Dov being there for her after 3x09. (I'm also OK with making the events of that ep worse if you like - I've always thought Perik might not have waited till the end…)
Luke Callaghan/Gail Peck (Rookie Blue)
I think these two are well-suited for each other, both having major issues and yet with the potential to not take any bull from each other. The end of S2 seemed to suggest the possibility of this ship, and I was disappointed when it never happened. Would love to see an AU where it does, or moments between them of some kind.
Women's Murder Club (TV)
Basic premise: A small group of friends (three to start, with a fourth working her way in during the first couple episodes) who all work in related fields share information to help each other solve cases. Lindsay Boxer (played by Angie Harmon) is a homicide inspector (aka detective) who works in San Francisco's police department. She's friends with Jill Bernhardt, a deputy district attorney and Claire Washburn (played by Paula Newsome), the medical examiner. As the show unfolds, she begins to respect (and maybe even like?) Cindy Thomas (played by Aubrey Dollar), a young reporter who gets assigned to the crime beat. The show is an excellent mix of drama, comedy, and romance, and has a lot of similarities to Rizzoli & Isles.
I got into Women's Murder Club because I loved watching Angie Harmon in Rizzoli & Isles, and this sounded like a similar role for her. After I saw the video titled "The Best of Women's Murder Club" and read this comment, I was positive I had to see the whole show: "Now it all makes sense. Jane Rizzoli is an extension of Lindsay Boxer. The only difference, they keep butching up Angie Harmon." It is so true. Lindsay is like a milder version of Jane in some ways. But in the ways she's different, I fell in love with her character all over again. Lindsay can actually cry, she hates being vulnerable but she can actually do it and be real with her friends. And that just won me over. (Seriously, make Angie Harmon be all vulnerable and cry in a scene and you have me. Completely.) I love her dedication to her work, the toughness she can bring to the job, but I also love that she can still be human, still be vulnerable, that she doesn't feel like she has to be tough to be respected (Jane Rizzoli, in many ways, hardens herself in order to be respected in her job). I love that she cares about her friends, and that she's torn about her ex but still knows what the right thing is and even respects his fiancée. While Lindsay doesn't always take the best care of herself (or act the most responsibly), it helps that Claire can act as "mom" and give her the lectures she needs but sometimes doesn't accept even from her other friends (something Maura isn't very good at giving Jane in R&I).
Cindy stole my heart because of several reasons. One, she's cute and adorable (I don't usually find redheads fascinating but there's something about Cindy…). Two, she has a delightful personality, bubbly, a little lacking in some common sense now and then, which the others are happy to lecture her about. And three, she has a bravery and courage that is pretty amazing. When she volunteers for the dangerous decoy task in "Father's Day"… that took guts. Real guts. I think Lindsay had to respect her for that. And then with what happens to her in "And The Truth Will (Sometimes) Set You Free", well… I want to hear more. (I also have to admit, I might not be a sports fan, but I loved Cindy in "Play Through the Pain", especially her interaction with Claire's son.)
I love Claire because she's such an awesome character - a great mother figure, a bit snarky, talented, dealing with real life issues (such as her husband's injury and depression) and still being faithful and dedicated. She's great for telling the others what they need to hear, and being there for them.
Prompts by tag:
Lindsay Boxer & Cindy Thomas & Claire Washburn & Jill Bernhardt (WMC TV)
I love the interactions of these four characters and would love anything in the theme of the show. Whether it's discussions of their club "it's not a club", or supporting each other through something, I just love them and would love to see more of them!
Lindsay Boxer & Cindy Thomas (WMC TV)
I love the interactions between these two. I see a bit of hero worship on Cindy's side, and annoyance that turns to fondness and respect on Lindsay's. I'd love to see Cindy being ridiculous, or Lindsay saving her life. Or more of Lindsay and Cindy regarding the shooting in ep #12. Maybe an alternate ending where Jill isn't the one that stays at the hospital? Or maybe a fic about Lindsay and Cindy's friendship starting to grow from the beginning. I see a bit of insecurity in Cindy with regards to her friendships with the others. Or a missing scene with the two women? One possibility is right after Cindy was a decoy (you could AU it so she gets injured doing that if you like), or later that day. I'm sure you can come up with more. Does Cindy ever find out about Lindsay and the baby? (Or crazy idea yet, what if the pregnancy test was positive after all? Cindy finding out would make an interesting story.) Or just a fic where Cindy's being her usual adorably ridiculous self and Lindsay is wondering if she needs to shoot her. Any interaction between these two would make me happy.
Happy writing! :D
What I love about relationships is all the emotional depth: vulnerability, loyalty, knowing someone so well you know what they feel/think/need, even just having someone there as an emotional "rock". The whole "not being alone" feeling is such a powerful theme.
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: https://doranwen.dreamwidth.org/240453.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: supernatural/fantasy beings (elves outside of LOTR, vampires, werewolves, gnomes, zombies, etc.), AUs other than canon divergence or alt beginnings, noncanonical 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
DNW/Caution note: I'm not averse to mentions of sex, but I'd prefer the fic not focus on it or indulge in the physical feelings. Emotional feelings/bonds are what I focus on in any ship. If a prompt requires a mention or implies sex in some way, feel free to include it as necessary as long as the focus of the fic is elsewhere.
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 tagset category order):
The Matrix (Movies)
X-Men (Original Timeline Movies)
Crossover Fandom
Cybergeddon (Web Series)
Alphas (TV)
Rookie Blue
Women's Murder Club (TV)
The Matrix (Movies)
I'm not going into the basic premise here because if you don't already know it, I'm not going to spoil you! Just watch the films if you haven't already. ;)
I watched them back around the late 2000s, but after reading a small selection of fics at the time, I drifted away to other fandoms and forgot about it until I got to The Matrix when entering fics in my fic database. Rewatching them has reanimated my love for this fandom, and I think I love Neo/Trinity even more than I did before.
While I love the first film almost wholeheartedly (you'll see prompts that would involve changing some things), I have a complicated relationship with the sequels. There are scenes I love (the freeway chase, some of the Neo/Trinity ones), but the ending for Neo and Trinity is so sad that half the time I pretend the sequels never existed (and I never liked that The One was just a control measure by the machines). I'm happy with you doing the same if you want - but as long as both Neo and Trinity are alive (and together) by the end of the fic, I'm OK with you setting it whenever.
Trinity is the key, to me. She's the character I absolutely adore, and she's vitally important to the whole story. Without her, Neo would not be the One, and without her, everything falls apart. However, some of my prompts would require POVs other than hers and I love outsider POV; as long as she's focused on in the fic in some way, I'll be happy. (I'm also good with a fic where Neo doesn't appear as long as the focus is on their relationship somehow.)
As far as my DNW about sex goes, I don't mind if you refer to these two doing it, just close the door on them, please? Kissing is fine, just focus on the emotions over the physical.
Prompts by tag:
Thomas Anderson | Neo/Trinity
I'd love to see both of them survive at the end of the third film somehow, or maybe an AU of the first film where they're somehow able to save one or more of the crew members who die. (Or maybe they just figure out what Cypher was up to and stop him before he kills half the crew?)
I also love these two together, so if you want to write them developing a relationship (there's a big jump between "we kiss for the first time" and "we're madly in love and together"), or just feeling things out post-film 1, that would be awesome.
If you want to write some angst before getting to the waffy ending, I read a WIP once that pointed out that Trinity was told she would love Neo, but not that he'd love her back. What if there's some doubt? What if he didn't hear her say she loved him and she didn't kiss him right away? How would they sort that all out?
I love hurt/comfort, and there's plenty of possibilities there for these two, either emotional or physical.
If you want to play around with outsider POV, I'd love to see everyone observing how much Neo/Trinity are in love with each other before they realize it/admit it, or even one of them talking to her about it. Would especially be awesome to see an AU where Apoc and Switch survive to give their commentary on the relationship they saw coming a mile away.
And if you're into soulbonds, I could totally see this with these two. (And how would that work with the Matrix? All the awesome worldbuilding here.)
I got an amazing fic for these two for Multifandom Tropefest but I love the fandom so much that I'd love to see more!
X-Men (Original Timeline Movies)
Basic premise (in the rare possibility that whoever's reading this actually doesn't know anything about this canon and is curious): Humans have evolved to where some are born with an extra gene, called the X gene, which gives them mutant powers (mostly at adolescence, but some are visibly different at birth). Some use them for good and some for evil, and fear of the latter causes a lot of prejudice against them. One very talented telepath, Professor Xavier, gathers powerful mutants as students, who later become teachers at his own boarding school. Two of his teachers are Scott Summers aka Cyclops (played by James Marsden) and Ororo Munroe aka Storm (played by Halle Berry). During the course of the films, they rescue mutants and fight multiple villains.
Ahh, X-Men. :D I should note first off that my introduction to X-Men was through the films - the first three only - and I've not experienced any other canon besides them (unless you count poking on Wikipedia for comics info I could borrow for fic as I felt like). I wasn't too keen on what I'd heard about Wolverine when it was being made, so I never ended up watching it, or First Class, or any of the others, just X1, X2, and X3. X1 and X2 I love wholeheartedly, whether you AU them all over the place, or keep the plot as it is. The characters, the issues, there's a lot going on and it's just fantastic! X3, on the other hand… I like parts of it (Jimmy's power, the Cure plot, introducing Angel) but other parts of it I was very dismayed at (what they did to Scott and Professor X) or not fond of (the Phoenix plot, Rogue taking the Cure, even Ororo's haircut). So X3 is a mixed bag for me. I can enjoy a fic set in it, but given the ship I'm requesting (which involves Scott), I think you might find X3 a challenge to write! :)
I love the big issues the canon raises, such as the question of how much liberty we trade for security, and the ways people fear differences. The parallels to the Holocaust are particularly interesting to me, as the villain Magneto reacts to his experiences by promoting superiority of mutants over humans out of fear that it will happen again. Is his fear valid? Absolutely, which makes him a more sympathetic villain - yet that fear does not justify the means he uses, nor the results he would achieve (subjugating humans would only breed resentment toward mutants, which would make a genocide more likely should they ever be free of that yoke). Each character has to decide where they stand on the subject of mutant-human relations, and how they will demonstrate their views by their actions, and that makes them all the more fascinating.
I also love the personal issues raised by individual characters' stories. My favorite character (though I love quite a few of them!) is Scott. Sadly, the films don't give us nearly enough detail on his life or what brought him to be who he is. You're welcome to use whatever backstory you like, as long as it doesn't involve the aliens as in comics canon. (I like my X-Men realistic other than for the powers, lol.) What we do see (from my perspective) is a guy who has to get things right, not in order to dominate, but in order to satisfy his own standards. He has high expectations for himself, whether because he feels a sense of gratitude/obligation to Professor X, or just because he isn't satisfied with less than excellence. There's possibly some insecurity there, too. From the age difference between his actor and Jean's, I tend to headcanon that Jean is older than Scott by several years. What we see of their relationship in the film could be solid, but I've often seen some potential for issues and a breakup, hence the ships I've requested both here and in other exchanges (none of which are Scott/Jean).
One of my other favorite characters is, obviously, Ororo. She provides an excellent chance to give a different cultural perspective, and I like the comic-derived possibility of her being claustrophobic. While I did not request Professor X, I also really love his character too, as the wise leader who might or might not do a little too much manipulation of things. Since I've not seen any other films besides the first three, you've got a lot of leeway for what you write for the school's history as well as that of some of the characters.
As for other characters: I generally like all the students that are shown to be at the school (for instance, the physics class clearly has Dani and Jubilee in addition to Bobby, Kitty, and John), and I like the X-Men a lot. I'd prefer not to see the villains glamorized or justified; while I can understand their motivations, it doesn't make their actions any more valid (the ends do not justify the means). I headcanon Professor X as likely asexual (but you could sell me on a relationship in the past, perhaps with Moira - since I've not seen more than X1-X3, you're welcome to write her however you like if you include her). I never did see him and Erik as partners in a romantic/sexual sense. The only comics characters that I've run across in fics that I've read and know for sure I would rather not see in my gift are Gambit and any of the characters from the Hellfire Club.
Prompts:
Scott and Ororo are the rarest of all my rarepairs, I think (there are so few fics that focus on these two!); Ororo/Scott was not a ship I would have thought of till I read a couple really good fics years ago that paired them, and then I wondered why I hadn't seen those possibilities earlier. I'd love to see them navigating past the ghost of Jean in the relationship; even if it's set in an AU where Jean lives through X2 or where they break up before X2 ever happens, I'd imagine that Scott would have to adjust to not being in a relationship with Jean anymore, and given the number of years they must have been together, that's not going to be an instantaneous process. If you want to write X3, maybe you can find a way to keep Prof X from dying and bring Scott back? Or write an X3 where Jean is never found, and the Cure plot plays out without Magneto having her as a weapon. You'd probably have to do some tweaking of canon for X3, seeing as how Scott doesn't live very long in X3 and I really hate the thought of his death so would rather not read foreshadowing. It's so tragic! *sobs* But anyway, you'd think that Scott and Ororo would have had a lot of bonding they could do with each other, especially depending on the backstories you give them.
Crossover Fandom
I've seen wilder crossover ideas, but some of these are a little tricky. To write most of them will take great amounts of AU-ing. The one generality I can say is that I like crossovers to be taken somewhat seriously; I'd prefer not to receive crackfic. But I'm perfectly OK with "I don't know how I got here" sorts of situations, where one person is suddenly dropped into another world (whether they woke up there, or walked through a weird spot in the air, etc.). You'll have to use some of that to get some of these characters in the same place! For crossovers with LOTR characters, while I love fics that recognize that Westron is not actually English (and Frodo is actually Maura, etc.), I'm also OK with characters being dropped into the world able to speak it as if it were English. Perhaps whatever magic dropped them there made it so that Westron would always sound like English to them?
Also note that for the X-Men characters, I've only seen X1, X2, and X3, and I'm not particularly tied to X3 being canon. You're free to make up any details that weren't in the first two films.
Prompts by tag:
Andy McNally (Rookie Blue) & Maggie Bell (FBI TV 2018)
The same actress plays both characters, which leaves all kinds of room for interesting crossover-ness. I can't usually buy "twins separated at birth" storylines, but mistaken identities are so much fun to play with, and both characters are great law enforcement agents in their own right. How do they meet?
Cassie Holmes (Push) & Jean Grey (X-Men Original Movieverse)
I mostly wanted to see Cassie with Jean because their perspectives are so radically different. Jean's used to dealing with runaways, scared teens who don't know how to control the powers they have. Cassie, on the other hand, is more of a soldier. A very young one, but a soldier, nonetheless. She's self-controlled in a way few of the teens Jean would know could ever be. Perhaps Cassie ends up staying at the X-Mansion to hide from Division, and that's how they meet. Either way, I'd love to see either one from the other's perspective. Cassie interacts on such an adult level and would not fit in with the other teens, I don't think. As far as the timeline goes, in order to include Jean, you can either set this sometime before the end of X2 or AU it so Jean makes it. (Would prefer that X3 never happened…)
Chloe Sullivan (Smallville) & Cassie Holmes (Push)
I've not seen Smallville past season 3, really, but early years is where I see these two meeting up, when they'd be similar ages. Both are blonde, tough, city kids. Cassie might be younger, but she's even tougher - how many years has she been on her own, with her mom locked up by Division? And Chloe's all about discovering and exposing things like that. Whether they team up, whether they get into arguments because Cassie won't tell Chloe what's going on, whether it's just one of them observing the other and noting what they're like… I'm sure it won't be dull! I could see it as set either before the events of Push (wherein I'd wonder if Chloe helps Cassie get to Hong Kong somehow?) or afterward, with Nick and Cassie traveling together.
Gail Peck (Rookie Blue) & Miss Parker (The Pretender)
These two together would be a RIOT. I don't know whether they'd get along fabulously or whether the overload of sarcasm in one room would result in some kind of explosion or what. I haven't the faintest idea of how to get them together, so I hope you've got a great imagination. :D
Galathea Winthrop (Worldweavers) & Katherine Pryde (X-Men Original Timeline)
Both of these girls are talented with computers - but they approach them in entirely different ways! I'd love to see them meet up and connect somehow. :D
Nina Theroux (Alphas) & Jean Grey (X-Men Original Movieverse)
These two are fairly evenly matched as far as powers go, I think. On one hand, Jean could take over Nina's mind and control her power, but on the other, if she weren't wary, Nina could do the same to her. I'd love to see what happens when they meet up!
Nina Theroux (Alphas) & Miss Parker (Pretender)
It would be extremely interesting to watch these two interact. Miss Parker's tough-as-nails exterior masks a vulnerable core, and Nina covers her own vulnerability with suave polish. Would they see through each other, would Nina push Miss Parker for some reason, would they team up in some way?
Cybergeddon (Web Series)
Basic premise: FBI Special Agent Chloe Jocelyn (played by Missy Peregrym) is framed for cybercrimes she didn't commit, and has to go on the run to prove her innocence and save the world. She breaks Chase "Rabbit" Rosen (played by Kick Gurry), a more-or-less white-hat hacker, out of prison to help her.
This is like a hacker version of The Fugitive (I'm told it's reminiscent of 24 as well). Missy Peregrym is amazing in this role with a great range - physical, emotional, etc. She sells her character so well and really makes you feel along with her. While I'm not crazy about the Norton ad aspects of the series (and I think they kind of forgot that Linux is a lot better protected than Windows in general), the rest of it is fantastic and well worth watching. You can see an awesome trailer for it here, or here or here if the first link is geo-blocked for you.
Prompts by tag:
Chloe Jocelyn & Rabbit Rosen (Cybergeddon)
I nominated only this tag because I don't really care much for Chloe's relationship with Frank - and I absolutely loved the ridiculous banter between her and Rabbit. His brand of flirting, with her eyerolling and sarcasm back, made for some great watching. I could see a romantic relationship between them years down the road, but I really just wanted to see more of the friendship that's there by the end of the film. (I got a fantastic treat for these two for Yuletide awhile back and it just whet my appetite for more, lol.)
Give me anything post-film with these two! I'd love to see some of the aftermath - go realistic with this if you want! - we see planes going down, we're told elevators fell all over the place… Show me Chloe's reaction to this, with Rabbit there providing his own brand of support. Or have them go after Gustov again and get him for good this time. Or have them deal with the legal issues - obviously they'll withdraw the charges from her with regards to hacking, but does she get in trouble for anything else? And Rabbit should technically be in jail, but you know they worked it out so he isn't - I'd love to see that process. Redo the end of the film, even! Since I'd rather not see her with Frank, maybe you want to redo the scenes in Washington, change up how all of that works, where Rabbit fits in. I love canon divergence AUs, so feel free to do all kinds of things with this. I'll love whatever you come up with!
You can find the DVD at the US Amazon. If you can't do Region 1, then try here for an edited-into-single-film version (I didn't do that one! but kudos to the person who did). If you can't do either of those, leave an anonymous comment and let me know which file hoster you need it at (and whether you want the original webisodes + soundtrack in two parts, or one file of the webisodes edited into a single film), and I'll try to get that uploaded right away. (I promise I won't assume that I'm getting this for my gift - I'd just like to get other people into this too!)
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.
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. 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 really don't want to see her split 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 tag:
Lee Rosen & Nina Theroux (Alphas)
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.
Rachel Pirzad & Nina Theroux (Alphas)
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!
Lee Rosen & Nina Theroux & Rachel Pirzad (Alphas)
I would love to see these three characters interacting somehow. How did Rosen convince Rachel to be a part of the kidnap/interrogation plot in Need to Know, and how did Nina play into that? Or 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. Or a conversation dealing with what happened in When Push Comes to Shove. I love all three of these characters so much and would adore anything about them. Feel free to come up with whatever strikes you!
Rookie Blue
Basic premise: Andy McNally (played by Missy Peregrym), Gail Peck (played by Charlotte Sullivan), and Dov Epstein (played by Gregory Smith) are rookie cops in Toronto. Sam Swarek (played by Ben Bass) is one of the senior officers who becomes Andy's TO and partner - in more ways than one. Also called the cop version of Grey's Anatomy - a procedural with heart.
This show is my biggest "why didn't you watch this sooner????" because the fandom is pretty much dead now, and I missed out on so much… I watched Stick It years ago and loved Missy Peregrym in that, but for some inexplicable reason waited until this past summer to watch Rookie Blue. I was hooked from the first couple episodes and watched all 74 in two weeks. :D All the drama, the emotion, the romance, the angst… (And SO MUCH AU POTENTIAL. Seriously. Feel free to AU this all over the place.)
Andy/Sam are an OTP for me, and I like Gail with either Dov or Luke (not into Gail/Chris, Gail/Nick, or Gail/Holly), hence requesting the tags I did. My favorite parts of canon are the first couple seasons, up to where the boys drop Gail like a hot potato and Sam goes undercover.
Prompts by tag:
Andy McNally/Sam Swarek (Rookie Blue)
These two are pretty much destined for each other from the start, and I will take just about ANYTHING. Trope it up as much as you want - I requested them for Multifandom Tropefest and had more than 20 tropes I'd love to see with them, some of them the tropiest tropes too. (Accidental marriage, amnesia, everyone thinks they're together, fake marriage, fight to survive, huddling for warmth, hurt/comfort, on the run together, secret relationship - forbidden/taboo, soulbonds, unplanned pregnancy…) Have them meet in an AU way, or diverge from canon. Or have Sam there for Andy in some spot we don't see it, such as finding her before she leaves the station in 2x06, or going with her to the hospital at the end of 2x04, or taking her home in 1x07… I'd prefer no future fic with this - set it somewhere in the canon, please! (Or before, if you want to have them meet in an alternate way.)
Dov Epstein/Gail Peck (Rookie Blue)
To make this happen, you'll have to AU things some, but I would love to see Dov choosing Gail over Chris and thawing her out a bit. Or trope it up with them too - there's so many that would be hilarious. Accidental marriage or fake marriage with those two would be sooooo funny. Or go serious, with Dov being there for her after 3x09. (I'm also OK with making the events of that ep worse if you like - I've always thought Perik might not have waited till the end…)
Luke Callaghan/Gail Peck (Rookie Blue)
I think these two are well-suited for each other, both having major issues and yet with the potential to not take any bull from each other. The end of S2 seemed to suggest the possibility of this ship, and I was disappointed when it never happened. Would love to see an AU where it does, or moments between them of some kind.
Women's Murder Club (TV)
Basic premise: A small group of friends (three to start, with a fourth working her way in during the first couple episodes) who all work in related fields share information to help each other solve cases. Lindsay Boxer (played by Angie Harmon) is a homicide inspector (aka detective) who works in San Francisco's police department. She's friends with Jill Bernhardt, a deputy district attorney and Claire Washburn (played by Paula Newsome), the medical examiner. As the show unfolds, she begins to respect (and maybe even like?) Cindy Thomas (played by Aubrey Dollar), a young reporter who gets assigned to the crime beat. The show is an excellent mix of drama, comedy, and romance, and has a lot of similarities to Rizzoli & Isles.
I got into Women's Murder Club because I loved watching Angie Harmon in Rizzoli & Isles, and this sounded like a similar role for her. After I saw the video titled "The Best of Women's Murder Club" and read this comment, I was positive I had to see the whole show: "Now it all makes sense. Jane Rizzoli is an extension of Lindsay Boxer. The only difference, they keep butching up Angie Harmon." It is so true. Lindsay is like a milder version of Jane in some ways. But in the ways she's different, I fell in love with her character all over again. Lindsay can actually cry, she hates being vulnerable but she can actually do it and be real with her friends. And that just won me over. (Seriously, make Angie Harmon be all vulnerable and cry in a scene and you have me. Completely.) I love her dedication to her work, the toughness she can bring to the job, but I also love that she can still be human, still be vulnerable, that she doesn't feel like she has to be tough to be respected (Jane Rizzoli, in many ways, hardens herself in order to be respected in her job). I love that she cares about her friends, and that she's torn about her ex but still knows what the right thing is and even respects his fiancée. While Lindsay doesn't always take the best care of herself (or act the most responsibly), it helps that Claire can act as "mom" and give her the lectures she needs but sometimes doesn't accept even from her other friends (something Maura isn't very good at giving Jane in R&I).
Cindy stole my heart because of several reasons. One, she's cute and adorable (I don't usually find redheads fascinating but there's something about Cindy…). Two, she has a delightful personality, bubbly, a little lacking in some common sense now and then, which the others are happy to lecture her about. And three, she has a bravery and courage that is pretty amazing. When she volunteers for the dangerous decoy task in "Father's Day"… that took guts. Real guts. I think Lindsay had to respect her for that. And then with what happens to her in "And The Truth Will (Sometimes) Set You Free", well… I want to hear more. (I also have to admit, I might not be a sports fan, but I loved Cindy in "Play Through the Pain", especially her interaction with Claire's son.)
I love Claire because she's such an awesome character - a great mother figure, a bit snarky, talented, dealing with real life issues (such as her husband's injury and depression) and still being faithful and dedicated. She's great for telling the others what they need to hear, and being there for them.
Prompts by tag:
Lindsay Boxer & Cindy Thomas & Claire Washburn & Jill Bernhardt (WMC TV)
I love the interactions of these four characters and would love anything in the theme of the show. Whether it's discussions of their club "it's not a club", or supporting each other through something, I just love them and would love to see more of them!
Lindsay Boxer & Cindy Thomas (WMC TV)
I love the interactions between these two. I see a bit of hero worship on Cindy's side, and annoyance that turns to fondness and respect on Lindsay's. I'd love to see Cindy being ridiculous, or Lindsay saving her life. Or more of Lindsay and Cindy regarding the shooting in ep #12. Maybe an alternate ending where Jill isn't the one that stays at the hospital? Or maybe a fic about Lindsay and Cindy's friendship starting to grow from the beginning. I see a bit of insecurity in Cindy with regards to her friendships with the others. Or a missing scene with the two women? One possibility is right after Cindy was a decoy (you could AU it so she gets injured doing that if you like), or later that day. I'm sure you can come up with more. Does Cindy ever find out about Lindsay and the baby? (Or crazy idea yet, what if the pregnancy test was positive after all? Cindy finding out would make an interesting story.) Or just a fic where Cindy's being her usual adorably ridiculous self and Lindsay is wondering if she needs to shoot her. Any interaction between these two would make me happy.
Happy writing! :D
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