Dear Every Woman Writer Letter 2020
Jun. 18th, 2020 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
doranwenI've done Every Woman for several years and I really love the whole concept. Women are nearly always my favorite characters in any fandom, so I'm really looking forward to this. Below I've done a lot of describing the awesomeness about each each woman or group, and gave a few prompts in case you find them useful. I hope you have a lot of fun writing for me. :)
I love women who are strong, women who have quiet depth, women with an active inner life, women who do a lot of thinking and/or feeling… You'll probably see this in the characters I requested. :) I love women in roles from caretaker to defender, including a mix of those (such as a woman defending her children from harm, or a soldier who lays down her war life to raise a family). Courage looks like different things in different people, and I love seeing that strength shown in women with different personalities.
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 (even as a gift for me!). 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. I love to see how two people can take the same idea and come up with two totally different stories. :D
If you're crossover-inclined, you're welcome to cross these with any fandom I know: If I've requested it or listed it as a possible crossover fandom in one of my other exchange letters, you can totally use it! Most of the fandoms I've requested in past exchanges have had a lot of women characters (some of them very female-centric), so that should make it easy.
And now to the requests (in the order of which I found them in the tagset):
Earth Girl Trilogy - Janet Edwards
Basic premise: Jarra is one of the Handicapped, someone whose immune system can't survive on any of humanity's thousand worlds except for Earth. She's grown up as one of the many Handicapped who were abandoned by their parents, raised as a ward of Earth. She's used to hearing slurs in the media, and she's sick of non-Handicapped thinking she's somehow less than human just because her immune system is faulty. So she's going to find a way to prove it to them… and in the process ends up turning her life upside down and changing the universe.
This is an awesome YA sci-fi trilogy! I love just about everything about it - the premise, the characters… The worldbuilding is fascinating and I found the slang growing on me over time. (I started thinking things like "utter nardle", lol.)
I love the characters in particular, and while Jarra is close to my heart because we see more of her and everything's from her perspective, I really love Nia too! I'd really love to see more about either one of them.
Prompts by tag:
Jarra Tell Morrath
For all that we watch her through three books, there's still so much of her life we haven't seen! Anything set before the trilogy (including the novellas about Jarra set pre-trilogy) would be neat - we get glimpses of what life was like in the Residences, but I'd love to see more. Or go for outsider POV - I'd love to see Jarra through another's eyes anywhere in the stories we have, as long as it's not someone who hates her (like Petra or someone prejudiced against the Handicapped). I've read the novella that was on the author's website "The End, and the New Beginning" so anything referenced there is fair game as well, no worries about spoiling me. (I also might have saved it all off so I can re-read when I want, lol, since I knew she'd be taking it down to polish before publishing.)
Nia Stone
We don't know all that much about her, but I think it'd be interesting to see more - she's practically an OC, so have fun with it! Backstory fleshing her out would be a great one - how she got into the military, how she ended up working with Colonel Torrek, etc. There's a tidbit about her backstory in the short story collection (see below if you haven't been able to read it and want to know what this backstory is) and I would love to see more about that history if you feel like it.
Crossover Groups
These are some pretty crazy crossover ideas, I must admit. To write most of these 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.). Fortunately most of these could exist in the same world easily enough.
Prompts by tag:
Group: 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?
Group: 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…)
Group: 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
Group: 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
Group: Nina Theroux (Alphas) and Jean Grey (X-Men OTM)
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!
Group: 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?
Group: Parker (Leverage) and Cassie Holmes (Push)
These two would be so much fun together. Cassie's socially savvy and world-wise; Parker's a skilled thief but social interactions are a lot harder for her than breaking into safes guarded by laser patterns. I'm betting Parker would try to teach Cassie thievery skills (and what Nick would think of that I have no idea), and I'd love to hear their conversations!
Group: Parker (Leverage) and Miss Parker (The Pretender)
Just playing with the names being the same (and we never do hear Miss Parker's first name either, so they both only have Parker for a name, lol) would be fun, but I'd love to see their interactions, period. Miss Parker is so sarcastic and hard, but Parker's special brand of insanity makes her delightfully unpredictable and someone Miss Parker would probably find extremely irritating. And wouldn't that be a blast to read? :D
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.
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.
I loved this partly because I'm a bit of a geek myself. While not a hacker, I do run a version of Linux as my main OS on several computers, and I'm not afraid of the command line, or doing things like accessing my home desktop remotely via ssvnc. (For anyone who would try to hack into my computers that way, don't bother - I know how to use hosts.allow.) If all of that is so much mumbo-jumbo to you, don't worry, there are some prompts below that you can write without needing to know a lot of techie stuff.
I just want more of Chloe, really, so all my ideas below follow that in some way:
Early years: We know she was hacking at age 17, what's the story behind that and how that "went away"? How did her relationship with her mother get so bad?
Pre-canon: How'd she get to joining the FBI for cybercrimes work? Or show me how they decided on her becoming Yelena and what she had to go through to pull it off.
Missing scenes: There's an enormous gap between her saving the world and the scene in the new office. Show me some of the aftermath - we see power grids going out, we're told elevators all over fell, and we know planes went down. How much, how bad? I'd love to see Chloe's reaction to all of that, especially since nearly everyone saw her face and probably has figured out she was connected to it in some way. Or show me the conversation between her and Donna regarding Chloe's innocence and what was really happening. There was way too much that happened between her mother's hug and her look at the new office that we didn't see, and I'd love some of that fleshed out!
Post-canon: Show me Chloe taking down Gustov permanently somehow, or her relationship with her mom now, or even a conversation dealing with her having kissed Rabbit. I'm not fond of her relationship with Frank, so I'd be delighted if you felt like changing canon and having her turn down resuming a relationship with him (I don't feel like they're close enough for her to give up her dreams for him - and it's sort of against the whole spirit of this exchange anyway, lol). Also, given that everyone knows her face (and what a context, too!), how does that affect her life?
Where to find canon:
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 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. You can see a brief intro to some of the characters here.
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. 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:
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! (I lean towards the S1 backstory but will be happy with a fic that uses either.) 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 - or at least certain of the skills!
Group: Nina Theroux and Rachel Pirzad
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!
Leverage
Basic premise: Four criminals and one honest-man-turned-thief con bad guys in order to right wrongs. Parker (played by Beth Riesgraf) is the world's best thief, and Sophie Devereaux (played by Gina Bellman) is the world's best grifter.
I don't know who suggested that I watch this show, but I want to thank them, because I adore it. I'm still watching through it for the first time - only just finished season 4! - so please don't spoil me for anything I've not seen yet. EDIT: Finally finished watching all of S5 - and I have THOUGHTS.
I loved Parker instantly as soon as I saw her in the pilot. "Twenty pounds of crazy in a five-pound bag" and I was hooked. She was talented and quirky, and the glimpses we get of her backstory only made me love her more. When she went into the reasons that Luca was definitely an orphan, I wanted to just hug her. She's simultaneously childlike and grown woman, innocent and world-hardened, and I love her for it. The best characterization I ever saw of her was from this fic where it says, "Parker is healed over scars, awkward and brilliant as she watches the world with bright eyes, no longer hurting but also not quite sane."
Sophie took a few episodes more to grow on me, because she was so flirty with Nate in the pilot that I had a hard time seeing her. But The Wedding Job did the trick, with her line about "do you know how hard it is to wait for someone", and suddenly I knew I loved her, even if it was just seeing her pain of loving Nate but not able to actually be with him. She really is the Team Mom and I love her mothering, the way she tries to mentor Parker, give Hardison advice… and has interestingly mature conversations with Eliot.
For the other characters in the show, I like Eliot a lot - his quiet strength, the dark past that haunts him, his protectiveness and thoughtfulness. He's mature and really the rock the team depends on. That scene in The Big Bang Job where he tells Parker not to ask him? Loved it, so so much. (As also the conversation with Nate about killing in The Last Dam Job.) And the decision in the warehouse… Oh man. Excellent. I love his teaming up with Parker on jobs and the fact that he's smart, emotionally grounded, he knows a LOT, and he grows his own food and cooks really well. :D (The singing is a bonus.)
Nate is complex and interesting - he's an awful person sometimes to the others but I can't hate him for it, probably because I can see how much of who he is was shaped by the loss of his son, as that same fic above describes him: "all broken and sharp, jagged edges the way he is, his wounds still raw and aching with every breath, knocking the wind out of him when he catches the sound of a boy's laugh in the distance".
Tara annoyed me at first but grew on me over time, and Sterling makes a worthy antagonist, which I almost began to like (annoyingly so!) after The Queen's Gambit Job.
Hardison is a trickier situation; I ended up just writing a whole essay on him, and apologize in advance for its length. I've had lots of rants and rambles to friends about him, and I think I finally clarified my thoughts there. I don't think I actually dislike him, but I'd like to see him grow up more.
As far as ships go, I started not really shipping anyone in particular, but as I read fics (concurrently with the episode air dates, so I didn't spoil myself) I found some ships emerging as winners to me. I definitely ship Nate/Sophie (I love the angsty conflicted fics, lol), though I've read some very interesting and good Eliot/Sophie fics, mostly angsty/interlude types (such as between S2 and S3). I don't go for Nate/Parker or Sophie/Parker (I've seen a few decent fics for each but I can't buy those ships due to the power differential between Parker and either Nate or Sophie), or Nate/Eliot or Hardison/Eliot at all. I'm OK with Sophie either with Nate or being tempted (or comforted) by Eliot, especially at certain points in the show. I can buy past!Sophie/Tara but would rather not get that in my gift.
And much to my dismay, while I could see the show steering towards Hardison/Parker from fairly early on, I really couldn't get into it at all (only a small part of that being my issues with Hardison), despite reading a lot of Hardison/Parker fics and even enjoying some. One fic I read put it like this (Parker about Hardison): "He understands me alright, but it's like he knows where the locks and motion detectors are but is just guessing where the guards and heat sensors will be… And he's imagining them to be where it would be most convenient for him." (I had a better quote but I can't find it in the 1000+ fics I have saved to my hard drive already.) I don't think they really fit together well in the long run. Eliot and Parker, on the other hand, seem perfect for each other, to my mind. :) So while I'm not going to ask that you write Eliot/Parker if that's not your thing, please don't write Parker with anyone else (Hardison/Parker in the past is fine, I can see that starting, just not lasting). (I can't get into the OT3 because Hardison/Eliot doesn't work for me as anything more than the deepest of bros, but I'd be OK seeing Parker as the pivot in a vee between them, if you'd rather write that. I see the bond between all of them as deeper than sex anyway.) I don't want to go into a whole ship manifesto at this point (since I'm still finishing the show and I'd want to have all of canon watched first to draw on and be accurate about), but this fic, though it feels somewhat OOC for the characters in the conversation, put into words much of how I see those ships - and why I think Hardison/Parker seems to work to start with, but would eventually quit working.
Added paragraph after seeing S5 finale: So I see where the whole OT3 thing comes in for people (Eliot's speech about having what he needs - the dying thing doesn't mean anything, since soldier buddies have done more than hold hands when another is dying without a single romantic or sexual thought towards the other). I still don't buy romantic/sexual attraction between Eliot and Hardison. To me the deepest bond possible between people isn't romantic or sexual at all, and that's what I see between them - between all three of them - they totally have each other's backs, through thick and thin. (Hardison's finally grown up, yay. As long as he doesn't get cocky. I'm glad Nate actually said that because that really really bugs me when he does.) But sex? A part of me still doesn't see Parker as really being that into sex (I could totally buy her as ace) - she talks about it frankly, she's not afraid to make out for a cover, she'll strip in front of the others to change clothes. (I think any nudity taboo she had was long since burned out by her experiences and that she simply isn't that sexually aroused by the human body - the way she echoed the others about Tara being hot felt very analytical, like she really wasn't emotionally engaged, was just looking at it objectively. It's weird to feel like I have so much in common with a character on screen! That so rarely happens for me.) But the most we ever see of her authentically, with emotions involved, is a kiss when she's trying not to die. (And yes, she does appear to be in sleepwear at one point during S5, but there are all kinds of ways to explain that one.) With the things she's been through, I've always headcanoned that sex is problematic for her, and she's not really comfortable going there. And of the two, I think Eliot would get that way easier than Hardison. I also think that they "tamed" the Parker on screen to make her more likable - the way she was set up in the pilot hinted at a little more crazy, and it could've been a bit darker. So I honestly do wonder if she's even gone that step with Hardison - given how patient he was with her emotions for several years, I can see him still being patient to try to get her to where she's comfortable taking their relationship more physical - but he will never ever get on a deep level what she's been through. And Eliot can. That's why I ship Eliot/Parker still. Anyway, sex is not as critical and important as people think, and I don't see anything wrong with one or the other of the guys not having it on a regular basis for whatever reason, so I don't see any reason they have to all be paired off at any one point in time. (Though it would be nice to find Hardison someone who actually really got his fandom stuff. I would be extremely sad if the people I cared about the most didn't really get that and I couldn't find anyone I could share that with. Oh hey, actually, that basically IS my life. But I digress.) I know it's not canon, but by now I'm well used to shipping against canon. My heart doesn't go where the writers intend, most of the time.
Also, I loved the finale ending - but I really hated that Nate and Sophie are now going to be all gone. Like, no, I love them and I want them all being a family together. So if you write any future fic (which I'm somewhat OK with, given the following caveats), please do not write them absent from the picture. I don't care if it's AU where Nate's back and sharing Mastermind role with Parker (because I'd love to see more of them trading off and working with each other as more equals), or what, I just can't see him abandoning it forever. Parker being OK with Sophie leaving this time - I see where they did the callback to mid-S2, but still - one can be OK with someone being gone, but it's better when they're there. Their family is so small as it is, to split it up further just makes me want to cry.
Prompts by tag:
Parker (Leverage)
I'd love to see just about anything from Parker's life, whether it's backstory (dark childhood or training with Archie), perspectives on any of the jobs they've done, AU endings to just about any story on the show, shippy stuff with Eliot, just plain hurt/comfort (either emotional or physical), making up for lost childhood experiences… (Feel free to use any of my interests if you want to have her watching some movie or show or reading some book, etc.) I love Parker's POV and I also love outsider POV, so either's great for me. I'd love Eliot/Parker or just friendship fic with the two of them, Eliot training her to fight or cooking for her, teaching her stuff, etc.
Sophie Devereaux
I've read so many excellent pre-show Nate/Sophie fics that I don't know how I could ask for more, but you'd be welcome to write one, particularly if it comes at the point where Sam is sick and Sophie hears about it somehow. I love this idea that Nate and Sophie have an emotional connection beyond just art theft and recovery, and that while he never cheated on Maggie, he was tempted, because Sophie is just that sort of person, and Nate and her were always going to be drawn to each other. I'd also love fics set during the show, from Sophie's slow realization over the course of S1 that Nate isn't the man she first fell in love with, to becoming aware that no one really knows her (that line in The Two Live Crew Job, where she says Nate was the closest thing she's ever had to a real friend - oof… note that includes Tara too!), to her heartbreak over Nate's deal in The Maltese Falcon Job, to falling in love with the new Nate (because I think there was a period of time in between where she wasn't necessarily in love with him but the old attraction still held, and he was still her friend, and the team was still her family)… Not so interested in reading about Sophie as a child unless it's in a flashback of some kind, but I'm quite content with angsty stuff here. And of course, if you want to do dramatic con stuff with any of these characters, go for it! Sophie's skill is wonderful, and she's clearly not completely defenseless as evidenced by her fight with the assassin in The Reunion Job (and Eliot teaching her to punch as shown in The Hot Potato Job), but she is more physically vulnerable than the others other than possibly Hardison so that makes things interesting.
Group: Sophie Devereaux and Parker
I love how Sophie acts like a mother to Parker at times, a mentor in the ways of relationships and grifting and womanly things. Just thinking about Parker's comment in the pilot "What is it with women and shoes?" and how only a season or so later she's dressing up fancy and pulling off parts in the cons she never could have before, there's a lot of conversations you could write about! Or have Sophie explaining things about people and normal lives that Parker missed. All the angst and heart-tuggingness is totally fine in my book, as well as the usual humor of Parker being Parker. I also loved the whole bit where Parker hugs Sophie in The Maltese Falcon Job and Sophie's all shocked "Ooh, Parker touching" "Kinda, yeah". Affectionate touch (including hugs) I'm always game to read about, so if that exchange caught your ear and heart, go into that more! (Does Parker hug Sophie at all more, or was that a one-time "glad you're back"?) I just love both these women and would love to see more of them together.
Rookie Blue
Basic premise: Andy McNally (played by Missy Peregrym), Gail Peck (played by Charlotte Sullivan), and Traci Nash (played by Enuka Okuma) are rookie cops in Toronto. Noelle Williams (played by Melanie Nicholls-King) is one of the senior officers who is sometimes a mentor and friend to Traci. 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 summer 2018 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 best with Dov (though if you're writing Andy/Sam, I'm good with her with Luke if that's your jam - just not so into Gail/Chris, Gail/Nick, or Gail/Holly). I don't have to have het romance here, though! I just love these characters and want to see more of them. 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
Andy is the core of the show, and we see more of her than anyone else. She's a bit emotionally clueless, I will admit (because she should've realized Sam meant more to her than Luke - long before she did), but her "lion's heart", eagerness, and natural listening ear make her an excellent cop and it's great to watch her grow into that. I'd love seeing just about anything from her life, though I'd really prefer to avoid S5/S6 as well as any of the Andy/Nick, and the show did enough Andy/Luke when she should've gotten a clue and moved away from him sooner. If you want some narrowing down, I'd love something from her days in the academy, or maybe an early case that we don't see in S1, or her dealing with her mom's abandonment.
Gail Peck
Ahh, Gail, the Ice Queen - who melts when she's around small children. (I loved seeing her with the deaf girl at the end of S4, and the way she tried to be there for the little Romanian boy in S2.) I never could buy the sudden team switch for Gail because it felt like the writers tried it only because they kept presenting her with (mostly unsuitable and sometime potential) boyfriends and then yanking them away (particularly if they were halfway decent, they never got any time onscreen), so I'd prefer that you set the fic before that, or diverge canon so that doesn't happen. Gail/Chris wasn't bad for when it happened, but as far as best matches personality-wise, only Dov and Luke actually have enough snark to balance her out sufficiently. I'd love seeing her growing up, seeing the pressures that caused her to turn into the emotional intimacy-shy woman we see. Or show her opening up to someone for once, and not having it backfire on her, or her freak out and run away.
Group: Andy McNally and Traci Nash
These two are great friends on the show, and I'd love to see how that got started! When did Andy learn about Leo, or Traci dating Jerry? When did Traci learn about Andy's family backstory? Anything of them being there for each other would be awesome.
Group: Gail Peck and Traci Nash
These two are really interesting - Gail's always making jabs at Traci, but they mostly don't have a lot of heat to them, and remember when Gail tried to invite Traci for sushi in 1x05 and then backpedaled so fast when Traci couldn't because of Leo? (Like WHAM, that door was closed, and it wasn't opening again.) Gail is so terrified of rejection that she rejects everyone first, but the few times that she dares open up are very revealing - and Traci's often been the recipient of that. I'd love to see a canon divergence fic where Traci realizes what's actually going on with Gail and starts building a friendship with her - or some of them after Jerry's death, when you can see Gail feels like it's her fault and Traci is leaning on Gail; I can see a real solid friendship beginning from that.
Group: Andy McNally and Traci Nash and Gail Peck
These three obviously do some things together - Girls' Night, etc. - when do they start doing things together? Is it just Traci and Andy and then they invite Gail too, or was it a "we're the rookie women, let's band together in solidarity" from the academy, or what? (I'm suspecting not the latter because Gail seems somewhat separate from the rest in S1 in many ways.) I'd love to see where that starts - or show more of it, whether it's general snark or what!
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
The show may be about all four women, but Lindsay is arguably the heart, and we see more of her than anyone else. I'd love just about anything from her - past, present, future… Or do a missing scene or canon divergence. There are so many places in the show that I'd love to see more of, such as what happens at the end of ep #13; the show ended with no proper finale, and a bit of a cliffhanger with Lindsay. I'd like to see what happens next. Or what if Lindsay actually was pregnant in episode #7?
Cindy Thomas
The word "adorable" was made for Cindy Thomas, and I'd love to see more of her brand of enthusiasm and passion for justice—and a good story. Maybe something from her childhood with her dad, a scene on her way to being a reporter, or a scene of her doing something to help with one of the many cases that the others are trying to solve.
Group: Lindsay Boxer and Cindy Thomas and Jill Bernhardt and Claire Washburn
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!
Group: Lindsay Boxer and Cindy Thomas
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, as I suggested above, 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
I love women who are strong, women who have quiet depth, women with an active inner life, women who do a lot of thinking and/or feeling… You'll probably see this in the characters I requested. :) I love women in roles from caretaker to defender, including a mix of those (such as a woman defending her children from harm, or a soldier who lays down her war life to raise a family). Courage looks like different things in different people, and I love seeing that strength shown in women with different personalities.
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 (even as a gift for me!). 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. I love to see how two people can take the same idea and come up with two totally different stories. :D
If you're crossover-inclined, you're welcome to cross these with any fandom I know: If I've requested it or listed it as a possible crossover fandom in one of my other exchange letters, you can totally use it! Most of the fandoms I've requested in past exchanges have had a lot of women characters (some of them very female-centric), so that should make it easy.
And now to the requests (in the order of which I found them in the tagset):
Earth Girl Trilogy - Janet Edwards
Basic premise: Jarra is one of the Handicapped, someone whose immune system can't survive on any of humanity's thousand worlds except for Earth. She's grown up as one of the many Handicapped who were abandoned by their parents, raised as a ward of Earth. She's used to hearing slurs in the media, and she's sick of non-Handicapped thinking she's somehow less than human just because her immune system is faulty. So she's going to find a way to prove it to them… and in the process ends up turning her life upside down and changing the universe.
This is an awesome YA sci-fi trilogy! I love just about everything about it - the premise, the characters… The worldbuilding is fascinating and I found the slang growing on me over time. (I started thinking things like "utter nardle", lol.)
I love the characters in particular, and while Jarra is close to my heart because we see more of her and everything's from her perspective, I really love Nia too! I'd really love to see more about either one of them.
Prompts by tag:
Jarra Tell Morrath
For all that we watch her through three books, there's still so much of her life we haven't seen! Anything set before the trilogy (including the novellas about Jarra set pre-trilogy) would be neat - we get glimpses of what life was like in the Residences, but I'd love to see more. Or go for outsider POV - I'd love to see Jarra through another's eyes anywhere in the stories we have, as long as it's not someone who hates her (like Petra or someone prejudiced against the Handicapped). I've read the novella that was on the author's website "The End, and the New Beginning" so anything referenced there is fair game as well, no worries about spoiling me. (I also might have saved it all off so I can re-read when I want, lol, since I knew she'd be taking it down to polish before publishing.)
Nia Stone
We don't know all that much about her, but I think it'd be interesting to see more - she's practically an OC, so have fun with it! Backstory fleshing her out would be a great one - how she got into the military, how she ended up working with Colonel Torrek, etc. There's a tidbit about her backstory in the short story collection (see below if you haven't been able to read it and want to know what this backstory is) and I would love to see more about that history if you feel like it.
Crossover Groups
These are some pretty crazy crossover ideas, I must admit. To write most of these 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.). Fortunately most of these could exist in the same world easily enough.
Prompts by tag:
Group: 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?
Group: 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…)
Group: 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
Group: 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
Group: Nina Theroux (Alphas) and Jean Grey (X-Men OTM)
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!
Group: 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?
Group: Parker (Leverage) and Cassie Holmes (Push)
These two would be so much fun together. Cassie's socially savvy and world-wise; Parker's a skilled thief but social interactions are a lot harder for her than breaking into safes guarded by laser patterns. I'm betting Parker would try to teach Cassie thievery skills (and what Nick would think of that I have no idea), and I'd love to hear their conversations!
Group: Parker (Leverage) and Miss Parker (The Pretender)
Just playing with the names being the same (and we never do hear Miss Parker's first name either, so they both only have Parker for a name, lol) would be fun, but I'd love to see their interactions, period. Miss Parker is so sarcastic and hard, but Parker's special brand of insanity makes her delightfully unpredictable and someone Miss Parker would probably find extremely irritating. And wouldn't that be a blast to read? :D
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.
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.
I loved this partly because I'm a bit of a geek myself. While not a hacker, I do run a version of Linux as my main OS on several computers, and I'm not afraid of the command line, or doing things like accessing my home desktop remotely via ssvnc. (For anyone who would try to hack into my computers that way, don't bother - I know how to use hosts.allow.) If all of that is so much mumbo-jumbo to you, don't worry, there are some prompts below that you can write without needing to know a lot of techie stuff.
I just want more of Chloe, really, so all my ideas below follow that in some way:
Early years: We know she was hacking at age 17, what's the story behind that and how that "went away"? How did her relationship with her mother get so bad?
Pre-canon: How'd she get to joining the FBI for cybercrimes work? Or show me how they decided on her becoming Yelena and what she had to go through to pull it off.
Missing scenes: There's an enormous gap between her saving the world and the scene in the new office. Show me some of the aftermath - we see power grids going out, we're told elevators all over fell, and we know planes went down. How much, how bad? I'd love to see Chloe's reaction to all of that, especially since nearly everyone saw her face and probably has figured out she was connected to it in some way. Or show me the conversation between her and Donna regarding Chloe's innocence and what was really happening. There was way too much that happened between her mother's hug and her look at the new office that we didn't see, and I'd love some of that fleshed out!
Post-canon: Show me Chloe taking down Gustov permanently somehow, or her relationship with her mom now, or even a conversation dealing with her having kissed Rabbit. I'm not fond of her relationship with Frank, so I'd be delighted if you felt like changing canon and having her turn down resuming a relationship with him (I don't feel like they're close enough for her to give up her dreams for him - and it's sort of against the whole spirit of this exchange anyway, lol). Also, given that everyone knows her face (and what a context, too!), how does that affect her life?
Where to find canon:
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 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. You can see a brief intro to some of the characters here.
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. 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:
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! (I lean towards the S1 backstory but will be happy with a fic that uses either.) 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 - or at least certain of the skills!
Group: Nina Theroux and Rachel Pirzad
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!
Leverage
Basic premise: Four criminals and one honest-man-turned-thief con bad guys in order to right wrongs. Parker (played by Beth Riesgraf) is the world's best thief, and Sophie Devereaux (played by Gina Bellman) is the world's best grifter.
I don't know who suggested that I watch this show, but I want to thank them, because I adore it. I'm still watching through it for the first time - only just finished season 4! - so please don't spoil me for anything I've not seen yet. EDIT: Finally finished watching all of S5 - and I have THOUGHTS.
I loved Parker instantly as soon as I saw her in the pilot. "Twenty pounds of crazy in a five-pound bag" and I was hooked. She was talented and quirky, and the glimpses we get of her backstory only made me love her more. When she went into the reasons that Luca was definitely an orphan, I wanted to just hug her. She's simultaneously childlike and grown woman, innocent and world-hardened, and I love her for it. The best characterization I ever saw of her was from this fic where it says, "Parker is healed over scars, awkward and brilliant as she watches the world with bright eyes, no longer hurting but also not quite sane."
Sophie took a few episodes more to grow on me, because she was so flirty with Nate in the pilot that I had a hard time seeing her. But The Wedding Job did the trick, with her line about "do you know how hard it is to wait for someone", and suddenly I knew I loved her, even if it was just seeing her pain of loving Nate but not able to actually be with him. She really is the Team Mom and I love her mothering, the way she tries to mentor Parker, give Hardison advice… and has interestingly mature conversations with Eliot.
For the other characters in the show, I like Eliot a lot - his quiet strength, the dark past that haunts him, his protectiveness and thoughtfulness. He's mature and really the rock the team depends on. That scene in The Big Bang Job where he tells Parker not to ask him? Loved it, so so much. (As also the conversation with Nate about killing in The Last Dam Job.) And the decision in the warehouse… Oh man. Excellent. I love his teaming up with Parker on jobs and the fact that he's smart, emotionally grounded, he knows a LOT, and he grows his own food and cooks really well. :D (The singing is a bonus.)
Nate is complex and interesting - he's an awful person sometimes to the others but I can't hate him for it, probably because I can see how much of who he is was shaped by the loss of his son, as that same fic above describes him: "all broken and sharp, jagged edges the way he is, his wounds still raw and aching with every breath, knocking the wind out of him when he catches the sound of a boy's laugh in the distance".
Tara annoyed me at first but grew on me over time, and Sterling makes a worthy antagonist, which I almost began to like (annoyingly so!) after The Queen's Gambit Job.
Hardison is a trickier situation; I ended up just writing a whole essay on him, and apologize in advance for its length. I've had lots of rants and rambles to friends about him, and I think I finally clarified my thoughts there. I don't think I actually dislike him, but I'd like to see him grow up more.
As far as ships go, I started not really shipping anyone in particular, but as I read fics (concurrently with the episode air dates, so I didn't spoil myself) I found some ships emerging as winners to me. I definitely ship Nate/Sophie (I love the angsty conflicted fics, lol), though I've read some very interesting and good Eliot/Sophie fics, mostly angsty/interlude types (such as between S2 and S3). I don't go for Nate/Parker or Sophie/Parker (I've seen a few decent fics for each but I can't buy those ships due to the power differential between Parker and either Nate or Sophie), or Nate/Eliot or Hardison/Eliot at all. I'm OK with Sophie either with Nate or being tempted (or comforted) by Eliot, especially at certain points in the show. I can buy past!Sophie/Tara but would rather not get that in my gift.
And much to my dismay, while I could see the show steering towards Hardison/Parker from fairly early on, I really couldn't get into it at all (only a small part of that being my issues with Hardison), despite reading a lot of Hardison/Parker fics and even enjoying some. One fic I read put it like this (Parker about Hardison): "He understands me alright, but it's like he knows where the locks and motion detectors are but is just guessing where the guards and heat sensors will be… And he's imagining them to be where it would be most convenient for him." (I had a better quote but I can't find it in the 1000+ fics I have saved to my hard drive already.) I don't think they really fit together well in the long run. Eliot and Parker, on the other hand, seem perfect for each other, to my mind. :) So while I'm not going to ask that you write Eliot/Parker if that's not your thing, please don't write Parker with anyone else (Hardison/Parker in the past is fine, I can see that starting, just not lasting). (I can't get into the OT3 because Hardison/Eliot doesn't work for me as anything more than the deepest of bros, but I'd be OK seeing Parker as the pivot in a vee between them, if you'd rather write that. I see the bond between all of them as deeper than sex anyway.) I don't want to go into a whole ship manifesto at this point (since I'm still finishing the show and I'd want to have all of canon watched first to draw on and be accurate about), but this fic, though it feels somewhat OOC for the characters in the conversation, put into words much of how I see those ships - and why I think Hardison/Parker seems to work to start with, but would eventually quit working.
Added paragraph after seeing S5 finale: So I see where the whole OT3 thing comes in for people (Eliot's speech about having what he needs - the dying thing doesn't mean anything, since soldier buddies have done more than hold hands when another is dying without a single romantic or sexual thought towards the other). I still don't buy romantic/sexual attraction between Eliot and Hardison. To me the deepest bond possible between people isn't romantic or sexual at all, and that's what I see between them - between all three of them - they totally have each other's backs, through thick and thin. (Hardison's finally grown up, yay. As long as he doesn't get cocky. I'm glad Nate actually said that because that really really bugs me when he does.) But sex? A part of me still doesn't see Parker as really being that into sex (I could totally buy her as ace) - she talks about it frankly, she's not afraid to make out for a cover, she'll strip in front of the others to change clothes. (I think any nudity taboo she had was long since burned out by her experiences and that she simply isn't that sexually aroused by the human body - the way she echoed the others about Tara being hot felt very analytical, like she really wasn't emotionally engaged, was just looking at it objectively. It's weird to feel like I have so much in common with a character on screen! That so rarely happens for me.) But the most we ever see of her authentically, with emotions involved, is a kiss when she's trying not to die. (And yes, she does appear to be in sleepwear at one point during S5, but there are all kinds of ways to explain that one.) With the things she's been through, I've always headcanoned that sex is problematic for her, and she's not really comfortable going there. And of the two, I think Eliot would get that way easier than Hardison. I also think that they "tamed" the Parker on screen to make her more likable - the way she was set up in the pilot hinted at a little more crazy, and it could've been a bit darker. So I honestly do wonder if she's even gone that step with Hardison - given how patient he was with her emotions for several years, I can see him still being patient to try to get her to where she's comfortable taking their relationship more physical - but he will never ever get on a deep level what she's been through. And Eliot can. That's why I ship Eliot/Parker still. Anyway, sex is not as critical and important as people think, and I don't see anything wrong with one or the other of the guys not having it on a regular basis for whatever reason, so I don't see any reason they have to all be paired off at any one point in time. (Though it would be nice to find Hardison someone who actually really got his fandom stuff. I would be extremely sad if the people I cared about the most didn't really get that and I couldn't find anyone I could share that with. Oh hey, actually, that basically IS my life. But I digress.) I know it's not canon, but by now I'm well used to shipping against canon. My heart doesn't go where the writers intend, most of the time.
Also, I loved the finale ending - but I really hated that Nate and Sophie are now going to be all gone. Like, no, I love them and I want them all being a family together. So if you write any future fic (which I'm somewhat OK with, given the following caveats), please do not write them absent from the picture. I don't care if it's AU where Nate's back and sharing Mastermind role with Parker (because I'd love to see more of them trading off and working with each other as more equals), or what, I just can't see him abandoning it forever. Parker being OK with Sophie leaving this time - I see where they did the callback to mid-S2, but still - one can be OK with someone being gone, but it's better when they're there. Their family is so small as it is, to split it up further just makes me want to cry.
Prompts by tag:
Parker (Leverage)
I'd love to see just about anything from Parker's life, whether it's backstory (dark childhood or training with Archie), perspectives on any of the jobs they've done, AU endings to just about any story on the show, shippy stuff with Eliot, just plain hurt/comfort (either emotional or physical), making up for lost childhood experiences… (Feel free to use any of my interests if you want to have her watching some movie or show or reading some book, etc.) I love Parker's POV and I also love outsider POV, so either's great for me. I'd love Eliot/Parker or just friendship fic with the two of them, Eliot training her to fight or cooking for her, teaching her stuff, etc.
Sophie Devereaux
I've read so many excellent pre-show Nate/Sophie fics that I don't know how I could ask for more, but you'd be welcome to write one, particularly if it comes at the point where Sam is sick and Sophie hears about it somehow. I love this idea that Nate and Sophie have an emotional connection beyond just art theft and recovery, and that while he never cheated on Maggie, he was tempted, because Sophie is just that sort of person, and Nate and her were always going to be drawn to each other. I'd also love fics set during the show, from Sophie's slow realization over the course of S1 that Nate isn't the man she first fell in love with, to becoming aware that no one really knows her (that line in The Two Live Crew Job, where she says Nate was the closest thing she's ever had to a real friend - oof… note that includes Tara too!), to her heartbreak over Nate's deal in The Maltese Falcon Job, to falling in love with the new Nate (because I think there was a period of time in between where she wasn't necessarily in love with him but the old attraction still held, and he was still her friend, and the team was still her family)… Not so interested in reading about Sophie as a child unless it's in a flashback of some kind, but I'm quite content with angsty stuff here. And of course, if you want to do dramatic con stuff with any of these characters, go for it! Sophie's skill is wonderful, and she's clearly not completely defenseless as evidenced by her fight with the assassin in The Reunion Job (and Eliot teaching her to punch as shown in The Hot Potato Job), but she is more physically vulnerable than the others other than possibly Hardison so that makes things interesting.
Group: Sophie Devereaux and Parker
I love how Sophie acts like a mother to Parker at times, a mentor in the ways of relationships and grifting and womanly things. Just thinking about Parker's comment in the pilot "What is it with women and shoes?" and how only a season or so later she's dressing up fancy and pulling off parts in the cons she never could have before, there's a lot of conversations you could write about! Or have Sophie explaining things about people and normal lives that Parker missed. All the angst and heart-tuggingness is totally fine in my book, as well as the usual humor of Parker being Parker. I also loved the whole bit where Parker hugs Sophie in The Maltese Falcon Job and Sophie's all shocked "Ooh, Parker touching" "Kinda, yeah". Affectionate touch (including hugs) I'm always game to read about, so if that exchange caught your ear and heart, go into that more! (Does Parker hug Sophie at all more, or was that a one-time "glad you're back"?) I just love both these women and would love to see more of them together.
Rookie Blue
Basic premise: Andy McNally (played by Missy Peregrym), Gail Peck (played by Charlotte Sullivan), and Traci Nash (played by Enuka Okuma) are rookie cops in Toronto. Noelle Williams (played by Melanie Nicholls-King) is one of the senior officers who is sometimes a mentor and friend to Traci. 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 summer 2018 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 best with Dov (though if you're writing Andy/Sam, I'm good with her with Luke if that's your jam - just not so into Gail/Chris, Gail/Nick, or Gail/Holly). I don't have to have het romance here, though! I just love these characters and want to see more of them. 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
Andy is the core of the show, and we see more of her than anyone else. She's a bit emotionally clueless, I will admit (because she should've realized Sam meant more to her than Luke - long before she did), but her "lion's heart", eagerness, and natural listening ear make her an excellent cop and it's great to watch her grow into that. I'd love seeing just about anything from her life, though I'd really prefer to avoid S5/S6 as well as any of the Andy/Nick, and the show did enough Andy/Luke when she should've gotten a clue and moved away from him sooner. If you want some narrowing down, I'd love something from her days in the academy, or maybe an early case that we don't see in S1, or her dealing with her mom's abandonment.
Gail Peck
Ahh, Gail, the Ice Queen - who melts when she's around small children. (I loved seeing her with the deaf girl at the end of S4, and the way she tried to be there for the little Romanian boy in S2.) I never could buy the sudden team switch for Gail because it felt like the writers tried it only because they kept presenting her with (mostly unsuitable and sometime potential) boyfriends and then yanking them away (particularly if they were halfway decent, they never got any time onscreen), so I'd prefer that you set the fic before that, or diverge canon so that doesn't happen. Gail/Chris wasn't bad for when it happened, but as far as best matches personality-wise, only Dov and Luke actually have enough snark to balance her out sufficiently. I'd love seeing her growing up, seeing the pressures that caused her to turn into the emotional intimacy-shy woman we see. Or show her opening up to someone for once, and not having it backfire on her, or her freak out and run away.
Group: Andy McNally and Traci Nash
These two are great friends on the show, and I'd love to see how that got started! When did Andy learn about Leo, or Traci dating Jerry? When did Traci learn about Andy's family backstory? Anything of them being there for each other would be awesome.
Group: Gail Peck and Traci Nash
These two are really interesting - Gail's always making jabs at Traci, but they mostly don't have a lot of heat to them, and remember when Gail tried to invite Traci for sushi in 1x05 and then backpedaled so fast when Traci couldn't because of Leo? (Like WHAM, that door was closed, and it wasn't opening again.) Gail is so terrified of rejection that she rejects everyone first, but the few times that she dares open up are very revealing - and Traci's often been the recipient of that. I'd love to see a canon divergence fic where Traci realizes what's actually going on with Gail and starts building a friendship with her - or some of them after Jerry's death, when you can see Gail feels like it's her fault and Traci is leaning on Gail; I can see a real solid friendship beginning from that.
Group: Andy McNally and Traci Nash and Gail Peck
These three obviously do some things together - Girls' Night, etc. - when do they start doing things together? Is it just Traci and Andy and then they invite Gail too, or was it a "we're the rookie women, let's band together in solidarity" from the academy, or what? (I'm suspecting not the latter because Gail seems somewhat separate from the rest in S1 in many ways.) I'd love to see where that starts - or show more of it, whether it's general snark or what!
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
The show may be about all four women, but Lindsay is arguably the heart, and we see more of her than anyone else. I'd love just about anything from her - past, present, future… Or do a missing scene or canon divergence. There are so many places in the show that I'd love to see more of, such as what happens at the end of ep #13; the show ended with no proper finale, and a bit of a cliffhanger with Lindsay. I'd like to see what happens next. Or what if Lindsay actually was pregnant in episode #7?
Cindy Thomas
The word "adorable" was made for Cindy Thomas, and I'd love to see more of her brand of enthusiasm and passion for justice—and a good story. Maybe something from her childhood with her dad, a scene on her way to being a reporter, or a scene of her doing something to help with one of the many cases that the others are trying to solve.
Group: Lindsay Boxer and Cindy Thomas and Jill Bernhardt and Claire Washburn
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!
Group: Lindsay Boxer and Cindy Thomas
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, as I suggested above, 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
