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featherxquill-yuletide · 10 months ago

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Dear Yuletide Writer 2024

Dear Yuletide Author,

It's been a while since I posted one of these! (holy shit 2016 how does that feel like half a lifetime ago). Thank you for offering one of the fandoms I requested this year! I'm excited to play again and I'm glad we matched.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of things I like: worldbuilding, small character moments, atmospheric setting, casefic, crackling dialogue, missing moments, unlikely pairings (romantic or otherwise), older women with rich interior lives, realistic bodies, things unspoken but very much felt.

I don't really have any major DNWs (I'm pretty game, or pretty stupid? idk) and I'm open to everything from gen to full-on smut (except where otherwise noted). I prefer romantic or sexual interaction of any variety to have a sting in the tail (I'm not super into fluff in general) and I prefer for any smut to come from a place of character, but yeah, have at it. I don't think I really need to say 'keep all characters over the age of 18' given who I've requested, but yeah, that.

Onto my individual requests:

Request 1

Slow Horses (TV)

Characters: Catherine Standish, Jackson Lamb, Louisa Guy, Roddy Ho

DNW smut in this fandom, please. I don’t mind flirting or shippyness if you see it, but I’ll need convincing, so do the fic equivalent of buying me a drink first, yeah?

Things I love about this series: the whip-smart dialogue, the unlikeable characters that sneakily trick you into loving them, the moments of humour and unbearable tension. The character I’m most drawn to is Standish, so please make sure she is included in the story. You may add any or all of the other characters as you wish.

Some ideas I’d love to see, if they take your fancy: missing moments at Slough House between these characters. I’m currently reading Mick Herron’s book series alongside watching the show, and I’m charmed by the connection between Catherine and Roddy that the books hint at but the show doesn’t really explore, but I’d also love to see Catherine bring her particular understanding of people to any of the residents of Slough House - what kind of understanding does she have with Louisa, or fellow addict Marcus (though he’s obviously at a quite different stage in his journey), or touchy and damaged Coe? Explore that twisted codependency between Standish and Lamb some more - I like the dysfunctional parents vibe they have and would love to see it played around with over time. How has their dynamic shifted as people cycled through Slough House? Do they have a history before that? Feel free to bring in characters not at Slough House, too - what would a lengthier interaction between Standish and Taverner look like if they got stuck in a car or lift together for some reason?

If you prefer a more ensemble cast, give me a case fic - the team solving a mystery despicable or benign, dealing with another brilliant idea of River’s, or maybe even dealing with something supernatural, if you care to invoke a bit of Ben Aaronovitch or Neil Gaiman. The slow horses fucking over the Park is also always a delight.

Request 2

Butchered Tongue - Hozier (song)

This request is very open. Basically, I adore this haunting little number. It evokes for me stories of travel and homecoming, violence and trauma, protest through voice and language. The narrator could be a person meeting people and collecting stories, or a witness to colonial violence. It could be a story of voices silenced and found, of people searching for the idea of ‘home’. I love the juxtaposition of earth as both a place of burial and a place for growth, of places close and distant that all have similar stories. I’d love for you to write about whatever journey this song takes you on.

Request 3

Hamlet - Shakespeare

Honestly, make this one as fucked up as you like. Hamlet is my favourite Shakespeare play, and although I’ve taught it as many times as I can, my interest has never been all that academic. I love the way it’s one big soap opera, all the dysfunctional relationships in it and the different possible motivations of the characters.

Gertrude is consistently the character I’m most drawn to, so I chose those three characters because I’d like some combination of Gertrude/Claudius, Gertrude/Hamlet or Gertrude/Claudius/Hamlet in all their fucked up glory.

Some questions/prompts: why did Gertrude marry Claudius, and how is that working out? Was it purely to avoid the power vacuum that her husband’s death left behind, or did she really want him? How is the rank sweat of that enseamed bed? Is it all she ever wanted? More than she bargained for? Was that poisoning plot all his idea, or is she the master manipulator?

And what is Hamlet’s obsession with his mother’s sex life? How much more intense have interactions between them been? Is Hamlet jealous of Claudius? I am absolutely here for all the twisted mother/son dynamics you can come up with.

If it helps, my preferred staging of this play is the 2009 RSC production with David Tennant (currently available on YouTube). I would love to read something both kinda hot and deeply discomfiting.

Request 4

Arc of a Scythe - Neal Shusterman

Scythe Curie, Scythe Faraday, Scythe Rand

I love this series! I love this world, the it's not-really-a-dystopia-actually of it all. I love the politics of Scythedom and the complexity of feeling around the idea of taking human life, the rituals the various scythes have for coping with the moral burden of their duty (or not, as the case may be - pretending that there isn't any moral burden and this thing should be fun).

I've chosen all the characters for this tagset because, with these three characters, why not? That said, you don't have to include all three of these characters. I'd like my gift to involve Curie, who is my favourite, but you can decide who you would like to write about her interacting with.

Some ideas: I love the canonical relationship between Curie and Faraday, so if you'd like to write me a moment from their seven-year affair, I'm all for that in whatever form it takes. I love a good bit of angst, too, so what was the first time they saw each other again after 70 years like? Make it emotionally fraught and achey and full of longing, or make it adult and moving on and finding closure, whatever appeals to you. BUT. These two were done DIRTY by canon, so I'd also love it if you FIXED THAT. Are there, somehow, two copies of Curie now in existence? Did she get revived somehow on earth in a way that the Thunderhead/Cirri never learned about, so now there's the version 2.0 we met in Gleanings, but also the OG revived on earth and getting to have her retirement off grid somewhere with Faraday? MAKE IT HAPPEN. My only note here is that I'd prefer to see these characters as adults with a bit of life experience, like we see them in canon or at least after their first turn-of-the-corner or two. I'm not really interested in Curie's years as an apprentice, so I'd prefer if you avoided that.

If you're more interested in Rand, I'd love to see an interaction between her and Curie. Have they interacted at Conclaves over the years, or was there a time when Rand considered breaking away from Goddard, sought out a more old-guard mentor and got rebuffed? If you can make me believe a femslash moment between them, I'd be into it, or could there be a time where Rand was involved in raising new apprentices that Curie had something to do with? Does she have a special skill she has demonstrated to terrified new apprentices?

I absolutely welcome treats, my main is featherxquill, and you'll also find me on Twitter by that name. Thank you for writing for me!

#yuletide #yuletide 2024 #dear yuletide author

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featherxquill-yuletide · 9 years ago

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Dear Yuletide Writer 2016

Dear Yuletide Author,

My apologies for the delay in posting my letter - it’s been a really busy week, please don’t mistake the delay for lack of enthusiasm. Thank you for picking one of the tiny fandoms of my heart. I already think you’re awesome, and I hope my letter gives you lots of ideas. I tend to be a bit wordy, but please feel free to pounce on anything that takes your fancy, whether it be a paragraph or a sentence.

General things that I love: worldbuilding, character backstories, stories that tell me how the setting impacts on the lives of characters. I love anything that tells me more about the parts of a character’s life that would never be/can’t be explored in a canon story because of rating/genre/etc. This could take take the form of a ‘missing scene’ style story that takes a moment we saw and expands on it, or it could be something fun and tropey that pares back all the excess of canon and sees what happens if we put these characters in situation X. I love the politics of fictional worlds and playing with power, whether on a micro or macro scale. I love female characters of all varieties and the relationships they have with each other.

Regarding ratings, I am absolutely fine with everything from gen to explicit smut, with the only caveats on that being that I really enjoy descriptions of realistic bodies, so please do not attempt to 'pretty up’ older characters - they are gorgeous as they are! Also, I love smut that comes from a place of character. I don’t have any specific squicks that need to be avoided - indeed, especially with the GW request, getting creative is encouraged! If a story can capture why a particular character has a particular kink, I will really like that, regardless of whether I actually share that particular kink. I love power play and I am perfectly fine with power relationships being ambiguous, but I prefer my smut consensual and between characters be over the age of 18.

Onto the specific fandoms!

Scott & Bailey - Any

For several years now, this fandom has been close to my heart. I’ve requested this fandom before and received a fantastic gift, but as far as I’m concerned there can never be enough Scott & Bailey fic, so I am being greedy and requesting it again. I would love anything about these ladies. Both femslash and lady-centric gen are more than welcome. This show does female relationships better than basically any show I have ever seen before, so anything that explores these relationships further will be wonderful.

Gill/Julie are my OTP* of both friendship and romantic attraction. I ship it hard, but would be equally as happy with a gen fic that I can imagine as part of the rich tapestry of their lives. So, ideas. Gen, casefic - did they work together in their younger years? Is that where they effortless rapport came from? Were they an amazing crack duo back in the day, kicking arses and solving crimes together? If so, how did Julie feel about it when Gill took the crime faculty job? How did their friendship change? How has it changed, over the years, as their lives have? Femslash, current or future - when did they get together, how does Gill’s retirement affect/enable/hinder their relationship? What part does Gill’s continued recovery have to play in their relationship? Sexy things: Julie as a long-time-out lesbian and Gill just discovering herself as a queer woman, all the different ways that plays out and impacts on their relationship. What bits of queer sex does Gill love? What does she want to try out? Is Julie fine with all of that or does she have some hang-ups of her own? Are there things they have to negotiate and work through together? Possible thoughts on things I would love: role negotiations in general, power play and dominance/submission, peri/menopausal sexual relationships and how they affect desire and sex drive, discovering non-sexual forms of intimacy. How does it look when two people know each other so well in most ways but are only just learning about each other in other ways, and when a woman who has been sleeping with women her whole life starts sleeping with one who hasn’t?

I didn’t nominate Janet because I only had four slots and I wanted to be a bit more creative, but I love Janet too, so if she and Rachel are more your cup of tea, go to town (friendship only, though, please). Rachel agrees to join Janet on one of her speed-dating jaunts, and they end up laughing in the pub about how actively terrible they both are at it afterwards. Loo conversations over the years and all the things they share with each other, possibly also featuring Gill (or, alternatively, Gill and Janet and their stairwell telegraph, dropping truth-bombs about their lives in the five minute spaces between interviews and briefings, occasionally featuring Rachel).

I love all of the more minor characters, too, so feel free to include them liberally interacting with the selected set. Some ideas: these ladies and their relationships with each other’s children - Taisie and Rachel: what does that ongoing relationship look like, does she still idolise Rachel through the tumult of her teenage years? Does she ever go to Rachel for advice, and if so, how does Rachel deal with that? Sammy and Julie (the cool gay auntie?) and how they have related to each other through Gill and Julie’s years of friendship (or through their transition from friendship to relationship). Mary Jackson: to Julie as Janet is to Gill? I would love to see that friendship, or even a story about how she gets along with Gill, who often seems kind of taken aback by her bluntness and willingness to ask awkward questions (one of the other reasons I love the idea of Julie being friends with Mary - it’s a sort of friends-of-friends familiarity). Baby dyke Anna and the Amazing Lesbian Superintendent - I would love to see some sort of hero worship/mentor relationship between these two.

Which brings me to my fourth nominated character: Karen Zalinski. Primarily, I would love to know more about her relationship with Julie. Could be be lady mentorship gen - both ways, a bit? I mean, Julie is clearly suffering from a massive mentor lady crush on Zalinski, but it also seems rather likely that KZ did not begin her career in Manchester, and the ACC in season 1 was referenced as 'he’, so perhaps Julie had some things to teach Karen as a Mancunian native, as well? Or it could be naughty boss lady/subordinate office femslash full of power play and professional misconduct (who is Karen Zalinski, and what would it sound like if she used that perfect pronunciation to whisper filthy things in your ear, or order you about?)

*By OTP I mean that it is Gill and Julie’s relationship that I love most, that I buy most as a potential long-term successful thing, NOT that I refuse to entertain any other pairing with either of them in. There are a few other pairings (+) I’m definitely keen on. I’m not super interested in receiving a Gill/Rachel fic (although I have read and enjoyed the pairing), but I am not averse to her inclusion in festivities. I primarily nominated her because another thing I would dearly love to see is a polyamorous Gill who doesn’t have a word for the way she is, who, some time into a committed relationship with Julie, finds herself flirting with, feeling affection for, wanting Rachel, and thinks there’s something wrong and horrible in her, something Dave-like. But unlike Dave she goes home to discuss it with her partner, and after some thought and negotiation and self-reflection, Gill and Julie invite Rachel Bailey into their bed. Also on the Gill/Julie + thing, I would also love to read some powerplay-y Gill/Julie/Karen - perhaps Gill and Julie are trying to introduce some elements of bondage into their sex life, but Gill doesn’t quite have the confidence, so Julie enlists the help of someone she’s played with before to help show Gill the ropes, as it were? ;)

Regarding season 5, I’m kind of fine with you pretending it doesn’t exist if you want. I was definitely not super sold on it, though there are a few things - like the introduction of Anna - that I was rather fond of. There were also some nice Julie/Janet moments in it, and if you felt like going down the ’and then the night when full-on bisexual’ route, I wouldn’t complain *g*

Green Wing - Joanna Clore, Sue White

I’ve been requesting this one for a few years now, but so far have not managed to match with someone brave enough to offer these two characters in their signup. If this is the year, hooray! Hopefully you’re as wacky and potentially perverted as me.

Because SUE/JOANNA, just. ajsggsjgshgshgs. I am not going to lie, I would love femslash here, but if that’s not your cup of tea, really anything would be excellent. The two brilliant, hilarious actresses who play them didn’t get NEARLY enough screen time to mash their ridiculous, over the top characters together, and I what I really want to see is just MORE OF THAT, please. Ridiculous job rivalries, one-upping each other, Joanna getting bizarrely jealous that Sue has bonded with Martin and them fighting over him. Go tropey if you like - stuck in a lift, on a conference together, pare it back to just the two of them. A friend and I also have a theory that the Green Wing may have actually been a well-functioning hospital before Sue and Joanna came along, what with their roles in the running of the place and the way Joanna only hires people she wants to sleep with or doesn’t think will impede her attempts to sleep with said people, and Sue being completely bonkers on the admin/welfare end, running things terribly and then dealing with everyone’s complaints and worries in the least reassuring way possible. In the context of the show, they’re basically responsible for running the place, and they do it horribly, so if you are a crossover-y type I would be DELIGHTED to see how they might run (and run into the ground) some other cultural/fictional bastion - MI-5, Hogwarts, the Starship Enterprise, etc. Take your pick!

If you do want to take this somewhere femslashy, go crazy. I mean it. I would really love some absurd, filthy, blurs-the-line-between-smoking-hot-and-squicky porn for this pairing. They’re both sexually voracious, Sue is fairly obviously bi and I don’t think Joanna would take much convincing, and their rivalry and the general weird, kinky and over-the-top sexuality of the show would just make this a wild, delicious mess, I think. I’m game for anything the filthiest corners of your imagination can come up with.

I hope all of this appeals, but if it doesn’t, you can check out my letter from 2014 for some more Sue-centric prompts, and if you would like an alternative Joanna-centric prompt, I would also really like to know what the aftermath of the s1 finale was for her: we leave her stranded with Fran on the side of the road with a botox needle sticking out of her arm, messed up and traumatised having just slept with her son. Like, what happened after that? How did Fran deal with that situation? Where did they end up?

FYI, feel absolutely free to ignore the Christmas Special finale or put it down to the hallucination of a dying Mac or something. I enjoyed the Joanna and Alan storyline in it (actually 'pull the characters out of their usual context and put them in a crazy situation’ is one of my favourite things), but the rest of it was kind of clusterfuck, and ofc the ending makes things more difficult for stories about Joanna.

Brief Encounters - Hellie Matlock, Bunny Matlock

This show was one of my favourite new shows of the year, and I dearly hope we second season of it, hopefully one in which we can see a bit more of the world and the women who live in it. But until then, fic!

I loved all the characters in this show - it was very clearly stolen by Penelope Wilton and her amazing Pauline, and Nita and Dawn and Steph are wonderful too, carrying the show as they did, but by far the most compelling storyline for me was Hellie’s, and I would dearly love to see more of it.

She’s such a wonderful character - half assertive and half terrified of her domineering mother, trying to break free and only half succeeding, cheeky and clever but with limited places to put that now that she’s been unceremoniously yanked from university. I am fascinated by the backstory we only got glimpses of, about her relationship with her tutor. What happened there and how did her mother find out about it, how did that end and what was it like for her to be ripped from this new life she was beginning to build for herself and dragged back home? If you would like to imagine that and tell me that story in more detail, I’d love that, particularly what it meant for her relationship with her mother.

Because, fucking Bunny Matlock, jfc. I am SO CONFLICTED about Bunny. Let’s be real, it’s probably because she’s played by one of my faves, but I am totally baffled by response to her. On the one hand, she’s a horrible person in a way that I have trouble enjoying (it’s very easy for me to enjoy a fave playing, say, a deceptive politician or whatever, but much harder to find glee in watching a woman tell her lesbian daughter that he feelings are invalid and disgusting and 'only a phase’), but on the other hand, I kind of feel sorry for her/want to empathise with her, this uptight socially obsessed small-town woman trapped in her own ideas of what is normal and acceptable to the point that she’s damaging her relationship with her daughter, perhaps irreparably. I would kind of like to see inside her head, I think, even if it is an unpleasant place? Can she see what’s happening to her relationship with Hellie and does she have doubts or fears about it? Just how repressed is she, and what would it take to break through that?

If you’re game, I might like to see that scene with the vibrator taken considerably further - did Hellie maybe leave it behind sneakily, like right by the door, so that her mother would have to grab it and hide it frantically when she went to greet some guests? What would happen later, when she had a moment alone? I hesitate a little here because I really don’t want any 'an orgasm solves all of life’s problems, including the part where you’re a homophobic asshole’ - don’t necessarily want to see the ideas in this paragraph linked to the ones above, but seriously. For a show all about female pleasure, this one was remarkably hesitant to actually depict any, and if there’s anyone in the world who needs an orgasm, it’s Bunny Matlock. Do with that what you will.

Whatever you write me, in whatever fandom, thank you and have fun! :D

Some useful links:

My main tumblr: featherxquill.tumblr.com

Twitter: @featherxquill

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featherxquill-yuletide · 10 years ago

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Dear Yuletide Author - 2015

Under the cut because it’s loooong.

This year’s fandoms: Scott & Bailey, Green Wing, Black Mirror

Dear Yuletide Author,

Yay! You've picked one of my tiny fandoms. I already like you a lot :D Many thanks for offering to write for one these fandoms, and I hope my Wordy Bastard letter gives you lots of ideas without being completely overwhelming.

General things that I love: worldbuilding, character backstories, stories that tell me how the world impacts on the lives of characters. I love anything that tells me more about the parts of a character's life that would never be/can't be explored in a canon story because of rating/genre/etc. This could take take the form of a 'missing scene' style story that takes a moment we saw and expands on it, or it could be something fun and tropey that pares back all the excess of canon and sees what happens if we put these characters in situation X. I love the politics of fictional worlds and playing with power, whether on a micro or macro scale. I love female characters of all varieties and the relationships they have with each other.

Regarding ratings, I am absolutely fine with everything from gen to explicit smut, with the only caveats on that being that I really enjoy descriptions of realistic bodies, so please do not attempt to 'pretty up' older characters - they are gorgeous as they are! Also, I love smut that comes from a place of character. I don't have any specific squicks that need to be avoided - indeed, especially with the GW request, getting creative is encouraged! If a story can capture why a particular character has a particular kink, I will really like that, regardless of whether I actually share that particular kink. I love power play and I am perfectly fine with power relationships being ambiguous, but I prefer my smut consensual and between characters be over the age of 18 (indeed, if you want me to acknowledge that I read the story, that's non-negotiable in my country).

Onto the specific fandoms!

Scott & Bailey - Any

For more than a year now, this fandom has basically been my life. I requested this fandom last year and received a fantastic gift, but as far as I'm concerned there can never be enough Scott & Bailey fic, so I am being greedy and requesting it again. I would love anything about these ladies. Both femslash and lady-centric gen are more than welcome. This show does female relationships better than basically any show I have ever seen before, so anything that explores these relationships further will be wonderful.

Gill/Julie are my OTP* of both friendship and romantic attraction. I ship it hard, but would be equally as happy with a gen fic that I can imagine as part of the rich tapestry of their lives. So, ideas. Gen, casefic - did they work together in their younger years? Is that where they effortless rapport came from? Were they an amazing crack duo back in the day, kicking arses and solving crimes together? If so, how did Julie feel about it when Gill took the crime faculty job? How did their friendship change? How has it changed, over the years, as their lives have? Femslash, current or future - when did they get together, how does Gill's retirement affect/enable/hinder their relationship? What part does Gill's continued recovery have to play in their relationship? Sexy things: Julie as a long-time-out lesbian and Gill just discovering herself as a queer woman, all the different ways that plays out and impacts on their relationship. What bits of queer sex does Gill love? What does she want to try out? Is Julie fine with all of that or does she have some hang-ups of her own? Are there things they have to negotiate and work through together? Possible thoughts on things I would love: gender play and strapons (and the top/bottom associations that go with those things), role negotiations in general, power play and dominance/submission. How does it look when two people know each other so well in most ways but are only just learning about each other in other ways, and when a woman who has been sleeping with women her whole life starts sleeping with one who hasn't?

I didn't nominate Janet because I only had four slots and I wanted to be a bit more creative, but I love Janet too, so if she and Rachel are more your cup of tea, go to town (friendship only, though, please). Rachel agrees to join Janet on one of her speed-dating jaunts, and they end up laughing in the pub about how actively terrible they both are at it afterwards. Loo conversations over the years and all the things they share with each other, possibly also featuring Gill (or, alternatively, Gill and Janet and their stairwell telegraph, dropping truth-bombs about their lives in the five minute spaces between interviews and briefings, occasionally featuring Rachel).

I love all of the more minor characters, too, so feel free to include them liberally interacting with the selected set. Some ideas: these ladies and their relationships with each other's children - post s3, Taisie showing up on Rachel's doorstep at 3am one night after getting herself into some sort of trouble because she's copied something she's seen Rachel do, but now she's scared to go home, and Rachel has to deal with the part of being idolised by someone that is very, very real. Sammy and Julie (the cool gay auntie?) and how they have related to each other through Gill and Julie's years of friendship (or through their transition from friendship to relationship). Mary Jackson: to Julie as Janet is to Gill? I would love to see that friendship, or even a story about how she gets along with Gill, who often seems kind of taken aback by her bluntness and willingness to ask awkward questions (one of the other reasons I love the idea of Julie being friends with Mary - it's a sort of friends-of-friends familiarity). Likewise, Janet interacting with Julie and what she sees, or a bit more of Rachel's interaction with Julie during that last case. What does that mentor relationship look like?

Which brings me to my fourth nominated character: Karen Zalinski. Primarily, I would love to know more about her relationship with Julie. Could be be lady mentorship gen - both ways, a bit? I mean, Julie is clearly suffering from a massive mentor lady crush on Zalinski, but it also seems rather likely that KZ did not begin her career in Manchester, and the ACC in season 1 was referenced as 'he', so perhaps Julie had some things to teach Karen as a Mancunian native, as well? Or it could be naughty boss lady/subordinate office femslash full of power play and professional misconduct (who is Karen Zalinski, and what would it sound like if she used that perfect pronunciation to whisper filthy things in your ear, or order you about?)

*By OTP I mean that it is Gill and Julie's relationship that I love most, that I buy most as a potential long-term successful thing, NOT that I refuse to entertain any other pairing with either of them in. I'm not super interested in receiving a Gill/Rachel fic (although I have read and enjoyed the pairing), but I am not averse to her inclusion in festivities. I primarily nominated her because another thing I would dearly love to see is a polyamorous Gill who doesn't have a word for the way she is, who, some time into a committed relationship with Julie, finds herself flirting with, feeling affection for, wanting Rachel, and thinks there's something wrong and horrible in her, something Dave-like. But unlike Dave she goes home to discuss it with her partner, and after some thought and negotiation and self-reflection, Gill and Julie invite Rachel Bailey into their bed. So, like, if that's something you're interested in… *g*

Green Wing - Joanna Clore, Sue White

I requested this last year, but I didn't watch it early enough to actually nominate Joanna, so I had to be very coy about how much I wanted a fic about both her and Sue in case I matched with someone who had no interest in Joanna. But this year I DID nominate, and if we matched on this obviously you're willing, so hooray and thank you!

Because SUE/JOANNA, just. ajsggsjgshgshgs. I am not going to lie, I would love femslash here, but if that's not your cup of tea, really anything would be excellent. The two brilliant, hilarious actresses who play them didn't get NEARLY enough screen time to mash their ridiculous, over the top characters together, and I what I really want to see is just MORE OF THAT, please. Ridiculous job rivalries, one-upping each other, Joanna getting bizarrely jealous that Sue has bonded with Martin and them fighting over him. Go tropey if you like - stuck in a lift, on a conference together, pare it back to just the two of them. A friend and I also have a theory that the Green Wing may have actually been a well-functioning hospital before Sue and Joanna came along, what with their roles in the running of the place and the way Joanna only hires people she wants to sleep with or doesn't think will impede her attempts to sleep with said people, and Sue being completely bonkers on the admin/welfare end, running things terribly and then dealing with everyone's complaints and worries in the least reassuring way possible. In the context of the show, they're basically responsible for running the place, and they do it horribly, so if you are a crossover-y type I would be DELIGHTED to see how they might run (and run into the ground) some other cultural/fictional bastion - MI-5, Hogwarts, the Starship Enterprise, etc. Take your pick!

If you do want to take this somewhere femslashy, go crazy. I mean it. I would really love some absurd, filthy, blurs-the-line-between-smoking-hot-and-squicky porn for this pairing. They're both sexually voracious, Sue is fairly obviously bi and I don't think Joanna would take much convincing, and their rivalry and the general weird, kinky and over-the-top sexuality of the show would just make this a wild, delicious mess, I think. I'm game for anything the filthiest corners of your imagination can come up with.

I hope all of this appeals, but if it doesn't, you can check out my letter from last year for some more Sue-centric prompts, and if you would like an alternative Joanna-centric prompt, I would also really like to know what the aftermath of the s1 finale was for her: we leave her stranded with Fran on the side of the road with a botox needle sticking out of her arm, messed up and traumatised having just slept with her son. Like, what happened after that? How did Fran deal with that situation? Where did they end up?

FYI, feel absolutely free to ignore the Christmas Special finale or put it down to the hallucination of a dying Mac or something. I enjoyed the Joanna and Alan storyline in it (actually 'pull the characters out of their usual context and put them in a crazy situation' is one of my favourite things), but the rest of it was kind of a clusterfuck, and ofc the ending makes things more difficult for stories about Joanna.

Black Mirror - yellow workers, onlookers

Worldbuilding, worldbuilding, worldbuilding! This show is so unbelievably dense with ideas and themes, so terrifying and sinister and uncomfortably familiar. There is so much I want to know about the worlds depicted in it, so many more stories to tell. I would love for you to tell me one of them. To that end, I chose background-y worldbuilding sort of characters from the two episodes I found the most affecting - '15 Million Merits' and 'White Bear'. I have picked both, but since these two worlds would seem to be different universes (unless you can think of some way that they might not be - some connection with the grey tracksuits, maybe? Is there a world out there the bikers and lemons don't see? Are they too enduring some sort of punishment that they don't know about/don't talk about?), either world and set of characters is totally fine. Regarding darkness/violence/terror - go as hard as you like for this one. The show itself doesn't hold back, so I don't mind either. Disturb me as much as it does.

Some more thoughts on each episode:

15 Million Merits - this particular episode is scary because it's so hollow and empty, I think. Like Bing says, they are powering their society day in day out, but what has that society actually become? It's such a sterile life, devoid of any true meaning, at least from what we see. I am fascinated by the yellow workers - or 'lemons', as they are also called - how do they get where they are, what is daily life like for them? What are their quarters like and do they experience the same sort of invasive advertising every minute as the bikers, or are they so shunned and invisible that they are not worthy of being 'audience', only 'spectacle'? If so, is that as awful as it looks or is there some freedom in it? Do they actually get to make meaningful contact with other people? Tell me about the life of one of these workers, his or her story - could be one of the faces we see in the episode as a lemon or in a different role - is that where everyone ends up in the end? How much self-hatred do they live with, what happens to those who get out by winning their version of the game show? What is it like to be simultaneously obvious and invisible?

White Bear - I think this was the episode I found most disturbing, and that is certainly saying something. Victoria is so, so compelling, and the show's audience is so effectively implicated in the act of watching that it makes me physically uncomfortable to watch this episode and/or read people's reactions to it (seriously, look at the imdb boards for this one - as many people talking about how this is 'such a good idea!' as there are people disturbed by it, jfc). The idea of cruelty and violence as entertainment, of righteous anger turning to mob mentality is so brilliantly highlighted and problematised, and I would love a story about what is going on in the minds of these onlookers. What possesses a person to take their children to watch someone be psychologically tortured as entertainment? How does one go about deciding that this will be your day out this week? How many 'justice parks' are there, and are there people who make the rounds and go to every single one of them? What happens to the prisoners when public anger finally fades away/is replaced by a new, fresh anger? Does this particular form of justice lead to more violence/apathy toward violence? Was Victoria ever an onlooker at one of these things herself, becoming so used to watching torture that when she watched a little girl being murdered through the lens of her phone camera it just seemed like another act? Do any of these onlookers go on to commit crimes themselves?

I hope all this gives you food for thought and story ideas. If you would like some alternative options, I would also be happy with a story about one of the media personalities from '15 Million' (especially Judge Charity - does she have any feelings at all about the role she plays in coercing other women into sexual slavery, or is she so brainwashed and grateful that it's not her that she doesn't think about it? Is it actually more satisfying to be an elite in that world?), or a story about Jem or Baxter in 'White Bear'. Have there ever been moments when they have felt human connection to Victoria? Have they ever questioned the morality of their job? Or do they honestly feel righteous and satisfied by it every day?

I have so many questions. I hope they have sparked your imagination.

Whatever you write me, thank you and have fun! :D

#2015

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