DEAR FANDOM5k 2017 WRITER ♥
ABOUT ME
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-Fandom tags: Leverage • Person of Interest (Root and Shaw tag) • Suits (Donna and Harvey tag) • Things To Inspire You If You Go With “Original Work”
LIKES
-Fresh, lively conversation. Banter, casual danger dialogue, unintentional reveals about the characters, suspense-ratcheting, etc. (Anything that doesn’t exemplify that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.)
-Characters being friends with other characters. Scenes of this interspersed with the main romance, action/adventure antics, zombie apocalypse, etc. really makes my day.
-Plot-driven stories, rather than pure character studies.
DISLIKES
- Excess of either angst or fluff. Character death
-Clichés (especially of the romance tropes variety and COFFEE SHOP AU and tragic backstory)-PWP. But I do love UST and the delectable build-up to the deed, and sex scenes where characters talk and curse and banter, and just have fun.
FANDOM SPECIFIC THINGS
LEVERAGE
- Alec Hardison & Eliot Spencer & Parker
- Alec Hardison/Parker
Genres Requested:
AU - Genre Shift (historical, spies, etc.)
Canon Style Plot
Character Development
Established Relationship
Humor
Interpersonal Drama
Slice of Life
Stuff I Like:
- More of Hardison and Parker’s relationship the way it is on the show (casual in way that confirms a deeper connection, banter, ridiculous situations)
- The brot3. Eliot and Hardison ragging on each other. Eliot and Parker being coolly dangerous. THE THREE OF THEM AND DISGUISES AND ZANY SCHEMES AND BEING REALLY PERF FRIENDS IN THEIR DOWNTIME. Basically, being shown them being friends.
- Fic occurring in an unexpected setting.
- Ballet Dancer/Choreographer
- Female 40s Private Eye/Female Glamorous Wartime Singer
- Female Pioneer/Female Pioneer
- Female Pioneer/Male Pioneer
- Pre-Raphaelite Painter/Model
- Princess/Princess
- Silent Movie Star/Fencing Instructor
- Victorian Portrait Photographer (Original Work)
Action/Adventure
AU - SciFi / Fantasy Elements
Getting Together
Humor
Interpersonal Drama
Mystery/Procedural
Slice of Life
Worldbuilding
Stuff I Like Generally:
- Something that really pushes the envelope. Take the two characters and build a whole universe around them and I will eat it up with a giant spoon. Idk what that means. I’m sorry. Basically, use the characters as a springboard and shove them into a situation they wouldn’t normally encounter. Give them personalities that aren’t stereotypical for their occupation. Give them motivations that aren’t always noble and lead them to do things that have devastating consequences.
- A setting that isn’t Western Europe or the U.S., or inspired by either. I don’t mind characters who originate from those places, but maybe they’re transposed in another location.
- Ballet Dancer/Choreographer: Something to do with ballet culture. The obsession with a specific physique (which isn’t even the fashion magazine standard), sex without strings attached, competition, the bias against age, company directors playing god, WOC dancers. Maybe a ballerina and a choreographer who are matched in repute, talent and bitchiness, who are either permanently at war or united against the rest of the world.
- Female 40s Private Eye/Female Glamorous Wartime Singer: Singers on tour, inspiring troops on the front lines. A PI who’s recruited by their government or is faking an injury to avoid serving. I love noir so much, literally anything you do would MAKE MY WEEK.
- Bring on the background details like the effect of the war on the economy, organised crime, and the post-war fate of draft dodgers. (It doesn’t even have to be WWII per se; you could go alternate history or alternate universe, and have noir-inspired characters.) The war actually being fought in places no one remembers (think Ethiopia vs. Italy) or something set in the last days of/immediate aftermath of war (complications of peace; PTSD in returning soldiers; top Axis powers politicians going into hiding.)
- If this fic took place in Japan, I might marry you, mystery author.
- Pioneer/Pioneer: Pioneer in what field exactly is entirely up to you, but some things I’d love is automobiles, aviation, whacky household electronics (a dishwasher that also blow-dries your fluffy pet! Is it a television set or a video camera?!) or something completely fantastical (think A Ladies’ Guide to Collecting Mermaid Love Songs by Aimee Picchi.) Definitely don’t be constrained by historical accuracy or scientific limitations of our time. This is the place for an awesome Anachronism Stew.
- Pre-Raphaelite Painter/Model: OH MAN I AM SO SURPRISED AND PLEASED THIS WAS A NOMINATION. Nineteenth century people running around rebelling through dramatic and pretty paintings. Chafing students at art schools, poor painters who’ve alienated their customer base, people who are so behind on rent that posing is the fastest way to make a buck, difficult and irascible characters who want to sit for a painting, THE WORLD IS YOURS. I love the smell of turpentine in the morning.
- Princess/Princess: Give me the non-white non-European princesses. GIVE IT TO ME. Imperial China, RAJPUTS, ancient civilisation royalty, or if you’re willing to bend the definition a little bit, then Shoguns and their lovers. I love courts and advisers, politics, machinations, evil schemey people with schemey ambitions, and supervillains in love. I like marriages for convenience when the participants are being coolly pragmatic about it or are conditioned to accept it; angst about being “forced into an arranged marriage” not so much.
- Silent Movie Star/Fencing Instructor: I… have no ideas. Nothing to throw at you. Does the movie star look and sound like Bogey in my head for absolutely no reason? I think they do.
- Victorian Portrait Photographer: What if a rootless drifter type photographer (or one in exile For Reasons) ended up in an unknown place and got commissioned to take ridiculous themed photographs of a really influential family? And somehow became famous for their provocative and sensual photographs of That One Famous Muse?
Big NOs:
- I would really prefer not to see white-centric tropes, especially if you go the historical or fantasy way (dragons, prized virgins, castles, dreadful winters and Gregor Clegane type armour is old hat.) Bring on the merchant ships, gunpowder lovers, deserts, temples, dancing troupes, and polytheists and ladies in really sharp suits and gorgeous crowns.
- I also dislike gratuitous isms (depicting realistic microaggressions is A+, but Issue Fic is DD: for me)
- Root | Samantha Groves/Sameen Shaw
Genres Requested:
Action/Adventure
AU - Genre Shift (historical, spies, etc.)
AU - SciFi / Fantasy Elements
Established Relationship
Humor
Interpersonal Drama
Mystery/Procedural
Worldbuilding
Stuff I Like:
- Something that erases their constant dying in canon. Please, dear god, can we pretend that stuff never happened?
- More of Root being saccharinely bubbly evil and Shaw being blunt and clipped and in pistol-concealing halter tops. (It just occurs to me that they’re like Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. Sans mallet, of course.)
- Them going off on a mission of their own, the morality of which is best not discussed with other people. Anything, basically, that explores their extreme moral ambiguity and how they’re perfect with each other because of it.
- Side characters! Ahem, by which I mean, please feel free to include the other characters from the show. Team Machine, BEAR, #CarterLives (if possible; Joss is my favourite TV detective of all time), Elias and Scarface, etc.
- IF ROOT AND SHAW WERE TO HAVE ADVENTURES WITH ZOE MORGAN...
- AU where Root is a cyborg.
- Supervillain AU.
- Donna Paulsen
- Harvey Specter & Jessica Pearson
- Harvey Specter
Genres Requested:
AU - Canon Divergence
AU - Genre Shift (historical, spies, etc.)
Canon Style Plot
Character Development
Getting Together
Humor
Interpersonal Drama
Mystery/Procedural
Slice of Life
Stuff I Like:
- More of Donna and Harvey being a repressed UST-laden Will They Or Won’t They Why The Fuck Won’t They???? couple. Jsyk “You know I love you, Donna,” complete with that matter-of-fact, brusque delivery, is my most favourite line in ALL OF TELEVISION. More like that, please. I’m begging you.
- Jessica being boss. It appals me that there is literally only so many competent women in the show, and even fewer of them are lawyers (Scotty’s legal skills are a joke; lawyer!Rachel is a background character), so bring on Jessica Pearson kicking ass in her very lonely place at the top. In fact, if you want to handwave Katrina getting fired, that would be awesome. Fill the halls of Pearson Specter (that’s the name currently, right???) of badass women who do Jessica’s name proud.
- Legalese. If this is not your area of expertise, that’s totally fine. I don’t need a Legal Drama to be the centre of the fic. If legalese is your thing, bring on the local realities of this profession. (But please, please, please don’t go the Season 4 way and substitute actual specifics with vague nonsense like “They’re coming for your firm; the wagons are circling,” and “This envelope that will never be opened on-screen is the ammunition you need to win this power play.” PLS, STOP, SHOW. STAAAAAHP.)
- Including non-nominated other characters is absolutely fine! (Katrina and Louis give me heart-eyes.)
- Shitty James Bond AU (sort of). Mostly Harvey as an insufferably cocky spy and Donna his Moneypenny.
PLEASE REMEMBER
Picky as I may come across, I will love literally whatever you write. This Yuletide gift is a two-way street, and I hope it’s as awesome for you as I know it will be for me ♥