Dear Every Woman Writer 2021
Jun. 16th, 2021 07:28 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. I hope you have a blast writing for me. I always comment on my gifts and appreciate the hard work my writers do in crafting a story for me, and I'm sure I'll enjoy what you write.
I've tried to help you out by describing what I love about each fandom and/or character, and I've written a few prompts in case you find them useful, but if you come up with something of your own, please write what you think will work best! I've been wonderfully surprised by fics that I never would have thought of in a million years but which were absolutely amazing.
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 / nonsexual romance
- found families / teamfic
- apocalyptic / survival fic
- hurt/comfort / characters dealing with trauma / nonsexual physical touch (including cuddling)
- characters being vulnerable / character redemption
- positive treatment of religion
- trust building / friendship
- missing scenes
- canon divergence AU (especially fix-it fic)
- soulmates (as long as requested pairing are soulmates with each other)
- crossovers with fandoms I know (see list further down in this letter)
- any trope on this list: https://doranwen.dreamwidth.org/240453.html
DNWs:
- modern politics
- COVID-19 or pandemics
- onscreen sex or making out (a light kiss is fine, allusions are fine)
- supernatural/fantasy beings (elves outside of LOTR, vampires, werewolves, gnomes, zombies, etc.)
- AUs other than canon divergence or alt beginnings (i.e. no coffee shop AUs)
- gore / graphic violence (mild/medium violence is OK, just not as graphic as a surgery documentary)
- noncanonical death of canon characters or horror
- dark endings (happy or bittersweet endings only, please!)
- unrequested identity headcanons (gender/sexuality/etc.)
- calling an adult "baby" or "darling" ("sweetheart" works if you need a substitute)
- mpreg, A/B/O, genderswap, ageplay or BDSM of any kind
- anything dealing with the anus or feces
- feeding/inflation or eating disorders (characters eating a meal together is fine)
- crack (nothing deliberately wacky)
- uncensored profanity
- 1st/2nd person
- unprompted relationships between canonical characters
- crossovers with fandoms I don't know
Opt-ins I'm OK with, if they should arise as part of the story you are writing:
- noncon & aftermath (this overrides the onscreen sex DNW)
- underage (please keep them teens at minimum, and observe the no onscreen sex DNW)
- het pregnancy
- characters being parents
- child abuse of any kind (as long as it's not the requested characters doing the abusing)
If writing a romantic friendship, I'd prefer the line be drawn at forehead/cheek kisses and cuddles; please reserve lip kisses for sexual relationships.
If a prompt requires something that's listed as a DNW, please follow the prompt rather than the DNW. :)
Also, if choosing between writing the characters as true to themselves as you can, vs. writing a particular trope or prompt, I'd prefer you to keep the characters true to themselves.
If you're crossover-inclined, here's a list of fandoms you could cross with the requested ones (besides, of course, any of my other requests, other than Earth Girl):
1-800-Missing (TV) - love Jess, Brooke, and Sunny so much
FBI: Most Wanted - I fell in love with Sarah after nominations closed, or I might have nominated her; I really love Jess/Sarah (and that hug scene in 2x13!)
Flood (2007) - love Sam and Rob, and Patricia and Leonard, and I might be slightly shippy with those two pairs…
Gold Diggers (1995) - I love Beth and Jody, and their friendship (which I'm happy turning into a romantic friendship)
Leverage - I ship Nate/Sophie, and like the younger three either as completely platonic or Eliot/Parker (not Hardison/Parker or OT3, please)
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman - Lois/Clark are my favs, though I also enjoy S1 Jimmy (I always picture him in stories I read, rather than the actor from S2+)
Lord of the Rings - books only, please; I prefer canon ships in all respects
The Pretender - Jarod and Miss Parker are my favs and my OTP
Push (2009) - am such a Nick/Cassie fan, and I'm OK with underage here, as I see Cassie as the driving force behind it
Rizzoli & Isles (TV) - Jane and Maura are fantastic; I headcanon Jane as asexual and Maura as probably bi, and love them in a romantic friendship
Smallville - S1-S3 only, am a Clark/Chloe fan and not into Erica Durance's Lois, nor any of the magic stuff that came in S4
Stick It (2006) - I love Haley, lol
Sue Thomas F.B.Eye - Myles and Tara are my favs (I ship them), but I love Sue/Jack too
Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010) - I'm not sure exactly how you'd cross something like this with any of my requests, but I love the whole idea of it, even (Ellie is my favorite character, with Robyn a close second)
Women's Murder Club (TV) - I love Lindsay and Cindy in particular, especially in a pre-relationship way
X-Men movieverse - original two films only, please; I ship Scott/Ororo, Logan/Rogue, Scott/Rogue, Scott/Kitty, or Kitty/Pete (don't have any OTPs here, lol)
Please 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. Everyone comes at it differently and I'll enjoy it no matter what!
And now to the requests (in the order of which I found them in the tagset):
Earth Girl Series - 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. Several of the characters who are greatly affected by her actions are Drago Tell Dramis (her cousin of some variety), Riak Torrek (a man who is her nonbiological grandfather), and Gemelle Tell Feren (her sister).
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.) The pictures above may only show the initial trilogy, but I have read every short story and novella as well and I love them!
In previous exchanges, I've often nominated and requested Jarra. I didn't request Jarra for Every Woman this year because I feel like I've gotten a lot of Jarra with the books and recent novella. I adore Jarra, but we see nearly everything from her eyes, and she's an unreliable observer. She misses emotional things and has a limited viewpoint because of the way she's grown up. She really has no idea just how much she's impacted some people's lives, I feel like.
So for this request, I would love to see something from Gemelle's POV. We see far too little of her—she doesn't appear at all in the books! There's mention of "impersonal recorded messages" being exchanged, but that's all. Jarra doesn't even know what her sister is up to until Riak discusses it with her in the novella in Earth Prime. I would love to see Gemelle's reaction to any and all of the events in the series, or show me some of the behind-the-scenes things referenced in that conversation in the novella! (I'm trying not to be blatant about what that is if you haven't had the chance to read it yet. If that's the case, I hope you can get a copy of it and read quickly before you write Gemelle as you may end up contradicting canon unwittingly.) I would prefer no canon divergence or crossovers with this fandom, please. :)
Where to find canon: Pretty much any book or ebook site you look at. Note that Earth Prime may not be available as a physical book yet; I can't remember when the first physical copies were going to come out.
Worldweavers - Alma Alexander
Basic premise: Galathea Winthrop (aka Thea) is a Double Seventh, a seventh child of seventh children. This should mean she's good at something really special, right? Except she can't do magic at all. And Ars Magica is part of the curriculum of every school in the entire nation—except for one: the Wandless Academy (which is sometimes called the Last Ditch School for the Incurably Incompetent). But between a summer school (with a class of one) like no other, and various unusual events, Thea begins to discover the gifts she has never known she had. Oh, and save the world in the process.
I requested Thea because I'd really love more of her story, particularly after the books end. I'd love to see more of her time at Amford; does she make friends with any other students? Does she get sucked into more adventures? Does she keep frustrating Humphrey May? Does she create anything really special in her life? Like the Elemental houses, for instance. Something that no one else could do. (Would prefer the fic not center on her relationship with Corey at all.)
I'd prefer nothing set during the books themselves, and would prefer it's not set before them (such as during Thea's childhood). Feel free to create OCs as you need to flesh out the world.
I like how Thea's friends grow over time, and you can throw them in if you want, but I'd prefer that the fic not focus on them. I'm less interested in the Anasazi, Grandmother Spider/Tawaha/etc., Tesla and all of that; feel free to leave them out. I'd prefer if the fic not focus on the other polities (Alphiri, Faele, Dwarrowrim), as they're called in the books.
Where to find canon: The author's website links to the four books on Amazon or you can buy the ebooks on Smashwords.
Crossover Fandom
The one generality I can say about crossovers is that I like them 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. All of these I'd prefer as platonic ships, not romantic.
Prompts by tag:
Group: Andy McNally (Rookie Blue) and 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) and Jean Grey (X-Men OTM)
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) and 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.
Group: Gail Peck (Rookie Blue) and 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) and Katherine Pryde (X-Men OTM)
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) and Miss Parker (The 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 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). Is she reinstated to the FBI as canon indicates or does she end up on the run again for some reason? Also, given that everyone knows her face (and what a context, too!), how does that affect her life?
I got the awesomest treat for this fandom several years ago but I love the canon so much I want more!
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! it looks like the company themselves 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!)
FBI (TV 2018)
Basic premise: FBI Special Agent Maggie Bell (played by Missy Peregrym) works at the New York branch of the FBI, as does analyst Elise Taylor (played by Vedette Lim).
I've really enjoyed watching this show the past couple of years and look forward to more of it. Missy Peregrym plays Maggie perfectly, and makes me care about her character so much - and she has the emotional range to really nail it. The other characters have all grown on me, too, and I think they've done a great job. I particularly enjoyed Elise Taylor's story from the bomb in 3x03 to the final conquering of Vargas in 3x15.
FBI shares a universe with FBI: Most Wanted, so while I can't readily see how you'd combine casts, you're welcome to do so.
Prompts by tag:
Maggie Bell
There are so many things I'd love to see with Maggie. Missing scenes of her talking with OA about her undercover op (I ached for her when she was telling him about the woman she befriended—and killed), spending time with OA after breaking up with Nestor… I do have to admit I cheered there, because I did not like him at all. I'm good with either platonic or romantic for her and OA, but would prefer no established relationship fic—it's not canon on the show, so I'd like to see how they actually get there, if you go there. Natural disasters and all those tropes are good for me as well. (I just would prefer no pandemics, and please avoid mentioning COVID as far as possible. I like my fic escapist to that degree, lol.) Worldweavers fusion, even, if you know that fandom - I've always wondered what it would look like with Maggie using magic to solve cases.
Elise Taylor
I really loved Elise as soon as they focused on her with the bomb in 3x03. I loved Stuart's reaching out to her, and the way he genuinely seemed to care, and I would not mind seeing that develop into a relationship between them. I loved seeing her struggling with the stress, and would be happy to read some of her having trouble with post-traumatic stress and dealing with that. (Keep in mind, she's a single parent of a seven- or eight-year-old, so does that affect her parenting at all?) Her conversation with Maggie at the end of 3x14 was really good and I'd love to see her conversation with Jubal that we only see the beginning of.
Where to find canon:
It's a current CBS show (on summer hiatus); you can take it from there.
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.
As far as other characters and their ships go… Do what you want with Chris and Traci. I love Noelle and Oliver but am not a fan of Celery. Am ambivalent about Chloe (I like her but not the whole Wes thing), and I don't really care for Juliet or Marlo (who would've been much better if they hadn't used the bipolar thing in the way they did).
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 & future fic 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!
Where to find canon:
You can find the show quite a few places; this one's not hard to track down.
Happy writing! :)
I've tried to help you out by describing what I love about each fandom and/or character, and I've written a few prompts in case you find them useful, but if you come up with something of your own, please write what you think will work best! I've been wonderfully surprised by fics that I never would have thought of in a million years but which were absolutely amazing.
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 / nonsexual romance
- found families / teamfic
- apocalyptic / survival fic
- hurt/comfort / characters dealing with trauma / nonsexual physical touch (including cuddling)
- characters being vulnerable / character redemption
- positive treatment of religion
- trust building / friendship
- missing scenes
- canon divergence AU (especially fix-it fic)
- soulmates (as long as requested pairing are soulmates with each other)
- crossovers with fandoms I know (see list further down in this letter)
- any trope on this list: https://doranwen.dreamwidth.org/240453.html
DNWs:
- modern politics
- COVID-19 or pandemics
- onscreen sex or making out (a light kiss is fine, allusions are fine)
- supernatural/fantasy beings (elves outside of LOTR, vampires, werewolves, gnomes, zombies, etc.)
- AUs other than canon divergence or alt beginnings (i.e. no coffee shop AUs)
- gore / graphic violence (mild/medium violence is OK, just not as graphic as a surgery documentary)
- noncanonical death of canon characters or horror
- dark endings (happy or bittersweet endings only, please!)
- unrequested identity headcanons (gender/sexuality/etc.)
- calling an adult "baby" or "darling" ("sweetheart" works if you need a substitute)
- mpreg, A/B/O, genderswap, ageplay or BDSM of any kind
- anything dealing with the anus or feces
- feeding/inflation or eating disorders (characters eating a meal together is fine)
- crack (nothing deliberately wacky)
- uncensored profanity
- 1st/2nd person
- unprompted relationships between canonical characters
- crossovers with fandoms I don't know
Opt-ins I'm OK with, if they should arise as part of the story you are writing:
- noncon & aftermath (this overrides the onscreen sex DNW)
- underage (please keep them teens at minimum, and observe the no onscreen sex DNW)
- het pregnancy
- characters being parents
- child abuse of any kind (as long as it's not the requested characters doing the abusing)
If writing a romantic friendship, I'd prefer the line be drawn at forehead/cheek kisses and cuddles; please reserve lip kisses for sexual relationships.
If a prompt requires something that's listed as a DNW, please follow the prompt rather than the DNW. :)
Also, if choosing between writing the characters as true to themselves as you can, vs. writing a particular trope or prompt, I'd prefer you to keep the characters true to themselves.
If you're crossover-inclined, here's a list of fandoms you could cross with the requested ones (besides, of course, any of my other requests, other than Earth Girl):
1-800-Missing (TV) - love Jess, Brooke, and Sunny so much
FBI: Most Wanted - I fell in love with Sarah after nominations closed, or I might have nominated her; I really love Jess/Sarah (and that hug scene in 2x13!)
Flood (2007) - love Sam and Rob, and Patricia and Leonard, and I might be slightly shippy with those two pairs…
Gold Diggers (1995) - I love Beth and Jody, and their friendship (which I'm happy turning into a romantic friendship)
Leverage - I ship Nate/Sophie, and like the younger three either as completely platonic or Eliot/Parker (not Hardison/Parker or OT3, please)
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman - Lois/Clark are my favs, though I also enjoy S1 Jimmy (I always picture him in stories I read, rather than the actor from S2+)
Lord of the Rings - books only, please; I prefer canon ships in all respects
The Pretender - Jarod and Miss Parker are my favs and my OTP
Push (2009) - am such a Nick/Cassie fan, and I'm OK with underage here, as I see Cassie as the driving force behind it
Rizzoli & Isles (TV) - Jane and Maura are fantastic; I headcanon Jane as asexual and Maura as probably bi, and love them in a romantic friendship
Smallville - S1-S3 only, am a Clark/Chloe fan and not into Erica Durance's Lois, nor any of the magic stuff that came in S4
Stick It (2006) - I love Haley, lol
Sue Thomas F.B.Eye - Myles and Tara are my favs (I ship them), but I love Sue/Jack too
Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010) - I'm not sure exactly how you'd cross something like this with any of my requests, but I love the whole idea of it, even (Ellie is my favorite character, with Robyn a close second)
Women's Murder Club (TV) - I love Lindsay and Cindy in particular, especially in a pre-relationship way
X-Men movieverse - original two films only, please; I ship Scott/Ororo, Logan/Rogue, Scott/Rogue, Scott/Kitty, or Kitty/Pete (don't have any OTPs here, lol)
Please 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. Everyone comes at it differently and I'll enjoy it no matter what!
And now to the requests (in the order of which I found them in the tagset):
Earth Girl Series - 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. Several of the characters who are greatly affected by her actions are Drago Tell Dramis (her cousin of some variety), Riak Torrek (a man who is her nonbiological grandfather), and Gemelle Tell Feren (her sister).
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.) The pictures above may only show the initial trilogy, but I have read every short story and novella as well and I love them!
In previous exchanges, I've often nominated and requested Jarra. I didn't request Jarra for Every Woman this year because I feel like I've gotten a lot of Jarra with the books and recent novella. I adore Jarra, but we see nearly everything from her eyes, and she's an unreliable observer. She misses emotional things and has a limited viewpoint because of the way she's grown up. She really has no idea just how much she's impacted some people's lives, I feel like.
So for this request, I would love to see something from Gemelle's POV. We see far too little of her—she doesn't appear at all in the books! There's mention of "impersonal recorded messages" being exchanged, but that's all. Jarra doesn't even know what her sister is up to until Riak discusses it with her in the novella in Earth Prime. I would love to see Gemelle's reaction to any and all of the events in the series, or show me some of the behind-the-scenes things referenced in that conversation in the novella! (I'm trying not to be blatant about what that is if you haven't had the chance to read it yet. If that's the case, I hope you can get a copy of it and read quickly before you write Gemelle as you may end up contradicting canon unwittingly.) I would prefer no canon divergence or crossovers with this fandom, please. :)
Where to find canon: Pretty much any book or ebook site you look at. Note that Earth Prime may not be available as a physical book yet; I can't remember when the first physical copies were going to come out.
Worldweavers - Alma Alexander
Basic premise: Galathea Winthrop (aka Thea) is a Double Seventh, a seventh child of seventh children. This should mean she's good at something really special, right? Except she can't do magic at all. And Ars Magica is part of the curriculum of every school in the entire nation—except for one: the Wandless Academy (which is sometimes called the Last Ditch School for the Incurably Incompetent). But between a summer school (with a class of one) like no other, and various unusual events, Thea begins to discover the gifts she has never known she had. Oh, and save the world in the process.
I requested Thea because I'd really love more of her story, particularly after the books end. I'd love to see more of her time at Amford; does she make friends with any other students? Does she get sucked into more adventures? Does she keep frustrating Humphrey May? Does she create anything really special in her life? Like the Elemental houses, for instance. Something that no one else could do. (Would prefer the fic not center on her relationship with Corey at all.)
I'd prefer nothing set during the books themselves, and would prefer it's not set before them (such as during Thea's childhood). Feel free to create OCs as you need to flesh out the world.
I like how Thea's friends grow over time, and you can throw them in if you want, but I'd prefer that the fic not focus on them. I'm less interested in the Anasazi, Grandmother Spider/Tawaha/etc., Tesla and all of that; feel free to leave them out. I'd prefer if the fic not focus on the other polities (Alphiri, Faele, Dwarrowrim), as they're called in the books.
Where to find canon: The author's website links to the four books on Amazon or you can buy the ebooks on Smashwords.
Crossover Fandom
The one generality I can say about crossovers is that I like them 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. All of these I'd prefer as platonic ships, not romantic.
Prompts by tag:
Group: Andy McNally (Rookie Blue) and 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) and Jean Grey (X-Men OTM)
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) and 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.
Group: Gail Peck (Rookie Blue) and 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) and Katherine Pryde (X-Men OTM)
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) and Miss Parker (The 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 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). Is she reinstated to the FBI as canon indicates or does she end up on the run again for some reason? Also, given that everyone knows her face (and what a context, too!), how does that affect her life?
I got the awesomest treat for this fandom several years ago but I love the canon so much I want more!
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! it looks like the company themselves 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!)
FBI (TV 2018)
Basic premise: FBI Special Agent Maggie Bell (played by Missy Peregrym) works at the New York branch of the FBI, as does analyst Elise Taylor (played by Vedette Lim).
I've really enjoyed watching this show the past couple of years and look forward to more of it. Missy Peregrym plays Maggie perfectly, and makes me care about her character so much - and she has the emotional range to really nail it. The other characters have all grown on me, too, and I think they've done a great job. I particularly enjoyed Elise Taylor's story from the bomb in 3x03 to the final conquering of Vargas in 3x15.
FBI shares a universe with FBI: Most Wanted, so while I can't readily see how you'd combine casts, you're welcome to do so.
Prompts by tag:
Maggie Bell
There are so many things I'd love to see with Maggie. Missing scenes of her talking with OA about her undercover op (I ached for her when she was telling him about the woman she befriended—and killed), spending time with OA after breaking up with Nestor… I do have to admit I cheered there, because I did not like him at all. I'm good with either platonic or romantic for her and OA, but would prefer no established relationship fic—it's not canon on the show, so I'd like to see how they actually get there, if you go there. Natural disasters and all those tropes are good for me as well. (I just would prefer no pandemics, and please avoid mentioning COVID as far as possible. I like my fic escapist to that degree, lol.) Worldweavers fusion, even, if you know that fandom - I've always wondered what it would look like with Maggie using magic to solve cases.
Elise Taylor
I really loved Elise as soon as they focused on her with the bomb in 3x03. I loved Stuart's reaching out to her, and the way he genuinely seemed to care, and I would not mind seeing that develop into a relationship between them. I loved seeing her struggling with the stress, and would be happy to read some of her having trouble with post-traumatic stress and dealing with that. (Keep in mind, she's a single parent of a seven- or eight-year-old, so does that affect her parenting at all?) Her conversation with Maggie at the end of 3x14 was really good and I'd love to see her conversation with Jubal that we only see the beginning of.
Where to find canon:
It's a current CBS show (on summer hiatus); you can take it from there.
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.
As far as other characters and their ships go… Do what you want with Chris and Traci. I love Noelle and Oliver but am not a fan of Celery. Am ambivalent about Chloe (I like her but not the whole Wes thing), and I don't really care for Juliet or Marlo (who would've been much better if they hadn't used the bipolar thing in the way they did).
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 & future fic 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!
Where to find canon:
You can find the show quite a few places; this one's not hard to track down.
Happy writing! :)
